Contrast Match
by Shinokaze
Summary: Ranma leaves Nerima, to rebuild his life.  This is a continuation of Weebee's Contrast Match.  Rating raised to M
1. Prologue

Ever since Weebee stopped writing this fic, I was somewhat sad for two reasons. One being there have never been another Haruka/Ranma fic that have been taking this seriously, and two this is just too good a fic to let it fall into the chasm of unfinished works. So with the permission of weebee, I will attempt to finish what he have started. I will be reposting his 49 chapters with stylistic changes, but the storyline will be intact.

Prologue

This fic begins, as many others do, with Ranma Saotome sitting on the roof of the Tendo training hall. Unlike those many other fics, it was currently bright daylight rather than the star filled night sky that usually greeted his gaze. Looking over the side of the house, Ranma frowned sourly at the destroyed husk of the Tendo family Dojo, holes blasted in its walls and roof and battle damage marking the ground around it.

How he wanted to forget that day.

He had to do something. He had let things slide, since the chaos that accompanied him also provided him with great fights and kept around people to hang out with, but on the other hand it was hurting too many people. An image of Akane, almost getting hit by Ukyo's Okonomiyaki bombs and Shampoo's exploding pork buns unwillingly flashed into his head.

Ranma had to leave Nerim and take all of his baggage with him. As he contemplated ways to do this, one came to him. It had all of the subtlety of a mallet strike to the head, however, it would be quick and not very painful. If it worked, he would have no more fiancées and he could get on with his life, maybe with Akane, if she could accept him.

Sighing, Ranma jumped off of the roof of the Dojo, headed for the Nekohanten.

-CM-

"Airen come see Shampoo?" the purple haired Amazon said, bouncing out into the center of the restaurant from the back room.

Sure, Ranma had seemed angry with her after the wedding incident yesterday, but she knew that her Airen never held a grudge. That was one of the things she loved about him. Besides, did he really expect her to stand by and let him marry the kitchen destroyer? If he had, he'd probably die of food poisoning within the week!

Shampoo recoiled from Ranma's icy glare as he brushed past her toward the kitchen. It was clear from the way his eyes looked, that he had the soul of ice on at full blast but Shampoo could still see a small flicker of… something in his eyes. It was almost like a flicker of… anger... and betrayal?

Dismissing it quickly with a shake of her purple mane, Shampoo followed Ranma as he headed into the back of the Café, looking for her great-grandmother.

She had been avoiding the old woman recently, as said old woman had been glaring at her ever since she had come back from her wedding wrecking expedition the day before. Shampoo hadn't quite gotten up the courage to ask why yet, but she figured that she wouldn't like the answer that she would get.

Cologne looked up from stirring a vat of noodles when she heard the door to the back room of the Café opened, seeing the form of Ranma in the opening. Sighing, she hopped off with her cane. She had feared that this would happen.

"Hello Son-in-law. What can I do for you?" she asked, noticing his hands clench as soon as she said "Son In law." 'Maybe that was a mistake…' she thought, waiting to hear what he would say.

"Elder Cologne," Ranma started, surprising both Cologne and her great granddaughter with his formality. "I hereby renounce all Amazon laws. If you try to push them on me, I shall declare personal war on the Joketsuzoku. I know that a fight between you and I would probably result in my loss normally, however, since I'm probably not going to have any honour left by the end of the day, I can use the Umisen Ken and Yamasen Ken as well."

Cologne blinked in mixed surprise and shock. She had expected problems from Shampoo's latest stunt, but nothing of this magnitude. It was clear that Ranma was serious; she knew that doing something like that would destroy him. She and her great-granddaughter had just found out how far Saotome Ranma could be pushed, and she really didn't want to push back. If the stories Shampoo and Mousse told were true, Ranma had beaten Saffron, the king of Phoenix Mountain, and she couldn't contest that kind of power. Actually, being compared favourably with a person of that kind was rather flattering.

Sighing, she said "I understand. Will you at least ally with us, in order to strengthen our tribe?"

Ranma shook his head. "I'm not going to be here. I'm leaving in a few hours. I'm sorry I have to do this, but it's gotta be done," he said, some of his old emotions and mannerisms slipping past the barrier of the Soul of Ice.

Turning around, he saw Shampoo, her face streaked with tears. "I'm sorry Shampoo.. but I'll never forgive you for what you almost did."

Turning away from the young Amazon, Ranma marched out of the Nekohanten, headed for the next stop on his rounds. He knew that he had to do what he was doing quickly, as if he didn't, someone would get the presence of mind to stop him. He couldn't afford that.

-CM-

After a similar conversation with Ukyo, where Ranma's only words were "We used to be friends. If you want your damned Honour back, go kill Genma", he returned to the Tendo Dojo, ready to confront the hardest challenge of all. The girl he truly, even if he couldn't admit it, loved.

Akane Tendo sat in her bedroom, sniffling softly. P-chan was clutched in her arms, snoring contentedly. She couldn't believe what had happened yesterday. She had almost been married to Ranma… and then it was ruined. That damned Nannichuan Cask and all of the people who'd fought for it, the fiancées busting in and everything else. It was like her worst nightmare.

Looking up as she heard a knock on the window, Akane blinked as she saw a head with a pigtail poking down from above it.

Grumbling about stupid bakas who couldn't use the door, Akane walked over and opened the window. Instead of flipping in, Ranma slowly climbed down from the roof, hunkering on the edge of the window ledge.

"What do you want, Ranma?" Akane asked, angrily.

Ranma was glad she was angry. If she had been crying or something to begin with, he probably wouldn't be able to do what he was about to. "I'm leaving, Akane," he said in a deadpan voice.

"Y… you're what?" Akane asked, her eyes widening.

"I'm leaving. I've caused your family enough trouble. I'm gunna go away from here, maybe hang out in another part of the city... I'm gunna try n' rebuild my life from the train wreck it's become."

Akane's eyes widened further. The way Ranma was talking, he was serious. She could see a look of regret in his eyes, but also the steely determination that came to him when he had to do something very hard.

"But… why Ranma?" she finally choked out, her eyes filling with tears that she refused to shed. "Why after that wedding… We almost got married. Why the heck did you go after that stupid cask in the first place?" Now she was getting angry, as she remembered what had happened the day before.

Ranma sighed. "Why did I go after the cask?" he muttered, looking straight at Akane. "'Cuz I didn't want ya to marry a freak. A few months ago, ya said somethin that I've never forgotten. Remember when Me 'n Ryoga were huntin that Japanese Nannichuan?"

Akane nodded, wondering where Ranma was going.

"Well, ya said that you were alright with my body bein sick and twisted if my mind wasn't… ya see me as some sorta sick perversion of nature or somethin… I didn't want ya to marry that… and now the last Jusenkyo water's gone, and I ain't gunna get cured."

Akane reeled back as if she had been struck. There was no way Ranma really thought she was serious, did he? He insulted her all the time, and she insulted back. Why was this one time so important…. Then she remembered the exact scene. She HADN'T been Joking. She had even almost been crying… as much as she didn't like to admit it, at least at that time, she really HAD thought of Ranma as some sort of freak.

"Ranma… I don't think you're a freak…" Akane said, quietly.

Ranma shook his head. "Oh yeah? You honestly say that if we got married, and I got locked as a girl, you'd stay with me?"

Akane's mind pondered that for a few minutes. If Ranma was locked as a girl forever, and they got married… then she'd end up in a perverted lesbian relationship with Ranma. Her face curled into disgust. That was all Ranma needed to see.

Hopping down from the window of Akane's room, he yelled back up to her when seeing P-chan in her arms: "Hey Akane. Since breaking all these engagements pretty much shoots my martial artist's honour to hell, I might as well tell ya this. RYOGA IS P-CHAN!"

Akane blinked for a moment, and then the words were processed. She looked down to see P-Chan in her arms, his face as white as a sheet. Slowly, understanding began to dawn on her face and she walked towards her door, headed to the Furo.

We will leave this bloody scene to the reader's imagination. Suffice to say, Ryoga now had something that really WAS Ranma's fault to yell about.

Meanwhile out in the yard, Ranma realized that he probably shouldn't have yelled that so loud. As he turned towards the house, Soun, his father and his mother poked their heads from the living room.

Mr. Tendo spoke first. "Son, I'd better not have heard that right…" he said, menacingly.

"Oh. Such an ungrateful son. To disappoint his father so. Now, you won't break the Tendo agreement if you know what's good for you, boy." Guess who said that.

"Son. It's not very manly to refuse all of those women," Nodoka said, fingering her Katana.

Ranma sighed. He was hoping that he would have been able to get away without confronting them all at once. Then again, that felt WAY too much like his father's method of doing things. In a way, he was glad that he had been caught. Ranma turned to Mr. Tendo first, starting to speak.

"First off, yes. You did hear me right." He then turned to his father. "Secondly, I don't got nothin to be grateful to you about." He then turned to his mother, a woman who he had hoped would have been his support when he finally found her. But no, all she did was dangle the damned contract over his head. "And you. If you really wanna carry out that contract, I'll make damned sure there ain't no Saotome Ranma by the end of the night!"

Genma and Soun quailed as Nodoka staggered back in shock. Her son was asking for death rather than being manly with three beautiful women? What was wrong with him? Sighing, she took off her katana sheath from her back and removed the blade. "I am sorry son…. You leave me no choice."

Ranma turned a pained, betrayed look to his mother. He had honestly expected her to back down, given how nice she had been to "Ranko" and all, but here she was holding a sword. "Fine," Ranma said, his voice choking. "I see that both of my parents are against me… I'm gunna go down to the town hall and get my name stricken from the Saotome clan roll. There won't be an "unmanly" Saotome male after that. Feh. As if you could call Genma manly." Saying this, Ranma turned around and stalked out of the Tendo Dojo.

While Genma and Soun walked over to the Shogi board to mourn over Ranma's sudden departure over Sake, Nodoka looked at the front entrance with wide, shocked eyes. Had she just made a horrible mistake?

-CM-

Later that night, after sneaking back to the Tendo place for his pack, Ranma sat in the woods, in front of a camp fire. He had burnt all of his pictures of his family, tears running from his eyes. He had had to do it, he knew, and this was the best way.

Shampoo and Ukyo would get over it eventually, and they deserved a little pain for what they had done. Akane… He didn't want to think about Akane… and if he was Ronin, his greedy father couldn't do anything to him and his honour obsessed "mother" wouldn't come near him with a ten foot pole. To her, being Ronin was probably as bad as being Burakumin.

As he doused the fire and crawled into his tent, tears continued to come down his face, as if he was Mr. Tendo. He was sure that the pain of what he had done that day would probably never heal, for himself.

-CM-

After Ranma had left the yard of the Tendo Dojo, Nabiki Tendo slid her window closed, a small expression of regret flitting across her face. She didn't know that what she had done the day before would have led to this. She just wanted to keep her father from forcing her little sister and Ranma into marriage as well as making a little cash on the side. She had gotten to like Ranma over the months that he had stayed at the Dojo. Not as one of his many romantic interests, of course, but as a friend or annoying little brother…. Or if she was feeling really impish, a little sister.

She wasn't stupid and knew that Ranma let her sneak in and take pictures of her at night. A martial artist of Ranma's caliber would DEFINITELY either notice the water she used or just dodge it in his sleep, but she got away with taking her photos anyways. This was probably out of some misguided belief that Nabiki used the money she made to help support the Dojo and she was glad that he cared so much about the family.

She balanced the books for the family and did the budgets. However, she never spent any money SHE made on the home unless she needed to. Of course, this thought led her back to the fact that the family would need her stash of money in the next few weeks, and it was all thanks to her own actions. She looked out the window at the destroyed Dojo and then got up off of her bed and walked down the stairs.

Walking into the living room, Nabiki saw Genma and her father playing Shogi, as well as a rather unfamiliar sight. Mrs. Saotome was sitting in the corner of the room, cradling her Katana and crying onto it. As Nabiki got closer to the older woman, she heard what she was whispering. "Why did my son do such a thing…"

Nabiki snorted in disgust. "I thought he would have snapped months ago, actually."

Nodoka's head snapped up and she looked at Nabiki. Her eyes looked clear, as if she hadn't been crying at all. That was a very impressive trick. Nabiki would have to learn it sometime… not that she cried a lot, of course. "What do you mean by that, Nabiki chan?"

Nabiki just barely resisted the urge to reach out a hand and ask for money. She grimaced as she realized that that was becoming a conditioned reflex. "Well, with the curse, all the girls fighting over him and his father's stupidity, not to mention that both he and the girl he was really in love with were in a case of serious denial… a weaker guy would have snapped long ago. I'm pretty impressed with Saotome's will power."

"It was really that bad for him?" Nodoka asked, curiously.

"Yeah. He was so stressed that he was pulling his hair out some times," Nabiki said, remembering one particularly funny incident where Ranma quite literally had pulled out her hair out after a date with Kuno. She thought that she shouldn't tell that one to the manliness obsessed Saotome woman.

"But wouldn't all of the lovely women around him make him relax a little?" Nodoka asked, showing her traditional obliviousness.

Nabiki laughed. "Saotome-san, no offense, but that just made it worse. I know that ancient samurai used to take two or three women as mistresses, but Ranma isn't a samurai, ancient or otherwise. He had to keep in constant control of himself, or he'd be called every kind of pervert in the book…"

As Nabiki was trying to Re-educate Mrs. Saotome, a task that many greater women had tried, and failed, to do, Kasumi was standing in the kitchen, the plate of food that she had been preparing before Ranma made his announcement still in her hands, a stunned look on her face.

She thought of Ranma as the one who never gave up. The one who would always keep fighting no matter what, and he had just Given up in a rather spectacular manner. After Ranma arrived at the Tendo home, Kasumi had started looking to his determination for strength in her own semi-house wife duties, and it had become like a crutch.

Without it, she didn't know if she could keep on in the way she had, especially if Mr. Saotome kept eating in their house.

-CM-

Up in Akane's room, the youngest Tendo was laying on her bed, crying, and clutching a small stuffed animal. She remembered that Ranma had won it for her during that fair when she had been under the full body cat's tongue. Akane remembered that she had felt mortified that the shorter girl had given her a gift in public. She cried into the softness of the stuffed toy, wishing that she could take back her actions or that things could have been different.

End

Beta-Read by Tribun


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1, Nerima and a new Start

The sun rose over the district of Nerima the same way it had done for a very long time now, and nothing was perceptibly different. Somehow though, things just felt… strange. As if a key component of the ward of Tokyo had disappeared.

In the Tendo Dojo, the youngest daughter couldn't be seen anywhere. The middle daughter, Nabiki, was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of extremely strong coffee while the eldest, Kasumi, was cooking breakfast with somewhat less than normal enthusiasm.

Nodoka Saotome was sitting across from Nabiki, looking rather rumpled, as if she had been up all night, but not really worse for wear. "Where are my husband and your father, Nabiki-chan?" Nodoka asked, looking at the empty places at the table.

"They went to the bar last night, aunty Nodoka. They're probably still sleeping off the hangover," Nabiki said, angrily.

Nodoka's face turned down into a frown as Kasumi walked out of the kitchen, setting two bowls of Miso soup down for the two people at the table and then serving herself. As Nabiki took a long sip of the soup, she noticed that it didn't quite taste the same as it usually did. It was good, of course, but something seemed missing. Seeing that her sister had spent her time to prepare it, she didn't comment.

Upstairs, Akane Tendo was rolling over restlessly in her bed, but didn't want to face the day. She would rather have just hidden under her blankets for the next week, but she knew that Kasumi would be up to kick her out of bed with her "You can't say no to me" smile plastered to her face.

Grumbling about overly convincing elder sisters, Akane moved her feet over the edge of the bed and dropped them to the floor. Yelping as the cold wood finished waking her up, she staggered to her feet and over to the mirror at her dressing table.

She looked horrible. Her eyes were red from crying, and her cheeks were puffy. It was quite obvious that she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and her hair was a nightmare. She sighed as she started working on her disheveled appearance, desperately trying not to think of why it was that way.

A few rooms away, Genma and Soun, otherwise known as the lazy duo, snored on, oblivious of the turmoil of the house.

-CM-

A few blocks away in the restaurant district, a far different scene was going on.

Ukyo Kuonji, owner of Ucchan's Okonomiyaki, was sitting in the middle of her restaurant, a bottle of Sake in her hand. She had sent Konatsu out early yesterday, and she was glad of it now, as he wouldn't have to see his employer in her current state.

Ukyo clearly remembered the day before, when Ranma had walked in and said five words that ruined her life. "I thought we were friends…" Ukyo laughed, chugging out of her bottle. "That's all I was to you, wasn't it? And then your best friend ruined your wedding," she laughed softly. "Ukyo sugar, you just fubared."

Falling back into the chair she was sitting in, Ukyo let her head drift to the backrest and fell asleep. Konatsu would find her like that several hours later and carry her up to her room.

-CM-

At the Nekohanten, Shampoo was having a considerably less peaceful reaction.

"Shampoo go find husband!" she yelled, glaring at her great-grandmother.

Cologne sighed. "No, you will not child," she told her for the fifth time in as many minutes. Her great-granddaughter was very obstinate about her wish to find her former husband.

"Why not great-grandmother? He Shampoo's right Airen. She take him to China now he dump all other girls. We go back village and… OW!" Shampoo yelled, as Cologne whapped her on the back of the head.

"Listen here, girl. Ever since Ranma made that declaration yesterday he's been dead to you. The only law that applies to someone who says something like that is the kiss of death. That's why no one ever does it. The only problem is that I don't think HALF THE VILLAGE could kill Ranma, so we will leave him alone."

"But…. Great-grandmother…" Shampoo whined, having never seen such a violent reaction from her elder.

"Shampoo, that is final!" Cologne yelled, rapping her staff on the ground.

Shampoo walked out of the restaurant's kitchen, rebellious thoughts filling her head.

Cologne sighed. She was beginning to rethink her choice for her successor if Shampoo was this thick headed. Maybe So-pu? She was very level headed… Losing herself in her musings, Cologne started preparing the Cat Café for opening.

-CM-

A few miles away in the mountains around Tokyo, Ranma woke from his sleeping bag, dried tears still present on his cheeks. Moving out of his tent, he began to build a fire for his morning meal while he thought of his options. He desperately tried not to think of the actions that had lead to him having these options, however this wasn't really working.

He should probably stay mostly around Tokyo. Staying on the road and wandering for the rest of his life just didn't seem appealing anymore since he had stayed at the Tendo Dojo. He knew that since he was a Ronin, he would have a hard time in work or school, but since he didn't have someone else to keep a roof over his head and food in his belly he would have to give up on his education, at least for now, and focus on building up a home to live in.

His plans set, Ranma finished his meager breakfast and walked out of his camp, dousing the fire on his way past.

-CM-

He regretted his idea some hours later, having a pretty bad day.

He had made his way back into Tokyo after his brief trip out to the mountains and was now wandering Minato ward, on the opposite side of Tokyo were Nerima was. He had tried to find work at four different places, but as soon as he told them that he couldn't give them a last name they had turned him away. Even the one place where she had tried to apply as a waitress turned her away, although it took them a little longer to refuse the cute redhead.

Now he was wandering the streets, trying to find SOMETHING to do in order to make money. He supposed he could enter pit fights, but that was more his old father's thing. And besides, no one in a pit fight would be much of a challenge for him. Sighing, Ranma headed for a part of the city where it was rumoured there was a big construction project that lacked man power.

Maybe they would be desperate enough to hire him.

-CM-

George Carwell was going INSANE! He had been in Japan for three years, after coming over because of an architectural job offer, and things had been going well for him so far. The only problem was, that at the moment, things weren't going so well.

The labor market had suddenly taken a rather large leap in wages recently and he was having serious problems maintaining his worker quota without going over budget. One man had walked off the job just two hours ago, sighting low pay as a reason. He had to get a good replacement and he had to get one now.

As he thought this, leaning back in his office chair in the foreman's office of the construction site, he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" George yelled, straightening up in his chair. A young man, wearing a red oriental shirt and black tied pants, walked into the room. "What do you want?" George snapped, his stress showing through his voice.

"Well, I was kinda lookin for a job." The boy said, uncertainly.

George sighed in relief. "Fine then. No more than 150,000 Yen a month, deal?"

The young man blinked in surprise. "Yeah!" he said, happily.

George blinked in confusion. Most of the guys around here would have whined him up to at least 250,000 Yen a month, but this boy seemed really happy with 150. "All right then. What's your name?" he asked, reaching for a pencil.

The boy's face fell, as if he was remembering something. None the less, he spoke anyways. "I'm Ranma."

George scribbled down the name and then looked up at the boy. "Last name?" he asked, expectantly.

"I… don't have one," the boy said, his face falling further. "I'm a Ronin."

George looked confused. He had heard the word "Ronin" before, but he never really got its significance. Ronins were apparently very dishonourable, but no reason was ever given. He was desperate for workers, though, and if this Ronin kid did something illegal he could just call the police. "All right, Ranma. That'll be fine."

"Really?" the boy asked, his head coming up and a happy grin on his face. "Hey, thanks, man. I've been lookin for a job all day."

George smiled as he got a better look at the boy, now that he wasn't hunched over. He was lean, but had a lot of muscle on his body. He might not be very strong by the look of him, but he'd make a good scaffold worker. "All right, Ranma. How about you come back for your first day tomorrow, Okay?"

Ranma nodded enthusiastically, before walking out of the foreman's trailer, his head held high. He had finally gotten a job, and it paid decently. He wouldn't be living in a very nice apartment, perhaps one room without a kitchen, but he could live off of 150,000 Yen a month.

Heading for the poorer section of of the ward to search for apartments, Ranma left the construction site behind for the time being.

-CM-

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ward, a figure got off of a motor bike, with a duffel bag slung over its shoulder.

It had been a long drive from the house where the figure had grown up and into the middle of Tokyo, but it didn't care. It had to get out of the situation that it's parents had forced it into, and if that meant running away, it would do that. The figure was pretty good at Motorcycle racing, and could use that to get by.

Pulling off the black motorcycle helmet it wore, a short bob of blond hair was revealed, with a rather effeminate face underneath it. Haruka Tenoh headed into Minato ward, looking for a place to stay.

-CM-

At the Gates of Time, one time guardian was having a very, very bad life.

Setsuna's bad life had started shortly after the end of the Silver Millennium, when it was revealed that she wasn't the time guardian of a main stream. When the time gates had started temporarily going out at random intervals, she recognized the signs of another being being the primary time mage of this timeline, and it made her feel rather inferior. What all of this basically amounted to was, that Setsuna couldn't shape destiny… at all.

Oh, things had gone pretty much as planned so far, but she highly doubted that they would stay that way, especially during the formative stages of what most of her alternates called "Crystal Tokyo." Quite frankly, that future didn't have a chance in hell of forming in this timeline.

Why? Well, at least one Senshi's star seed had gone off course and she hadn't been able to find it yet. Add on to that the fact that she couldn't control the time gates enough to do the time traveling required and you get one seriously FUBAR future… she just hoped that whoever was pulling the strings, he knew what he was doing.

-CM-

Somewhere, a cat sitting at the edge of a well sneezed violently. "I guess someone's talking about me," Toltiir muttered, continuing to gaze at his favorite pigtailed Television show.

END.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2, Just couldn't leave well enough alone…

Ranma cracked open his eyes, seeing the ceiling of a room, small discolorations all over it. Blinking as he didn't really recognize this particular ceiling, memory slowly filtered into the pigtailed martial artist.

He had left Nerima a week ago and this was the ceiling of his, as predicted, rather small and beaten up apartment. Getting out of his futon, Ranma quickly rolled it up, stowing it in the closet in the corner of the room. There wasn't much to the place, really. Just a single room with a closet and bathroom, a hot plate plugged into its single electrical outlet.

Putting on a fresh set of clothes, Ranma opened the front door of his new home, heading for the elevator down to the first floor. Since he was concentrating on what he would have to do at work today, he didn't notice the other person as the two ended up on a collision course.

Most of the breath came rocketing out of Ranma's lungs as he slammed into someone, an long object that the person had been holding slamming into his stomach. Shaking his head clear and climbing to his feet, he noticed the person who he had bumped into for the first time. It looked like a rather bishonen man with short cut blond hair, wearing a leather jacket. Next to him, part of the frame of what looked like a motorcycle lay on the ground.

"Sorry about that," Ranma said, offering the blonde a hand up. "I was lost in thought."

The other person took Ranma's hand and pulled himself up with it. "It's alright, I wasn't paying attention," he said in a low soprano that was just on the verge of being feminine.

"Need help with that thing?" Ranma asked, pointing at the bike frame. "It looks like it weighs a ton."

"Thanks," the other man said and the two hoisted the frame, carrying it to the elevator and heading downstairs.

As the elevator headed for the ground floor, Ranma gave the other man an appraising look. He looked like he worked out, but wasn't really a martial artist. Definitely a street fighter, though. Ranma stopped short of a Chi aura scan, as he only really used that against opponents.

After the two had carried the god awful heavy automotive part out to a garage where a torn down bike was stored, Ranma turned to the other man. "So, I'm Ranma. Who're you?"

"Haruka Tenoh," the other responded, then continued, "I just moved in last week."

"That's weird," Ranma commented, wiping his hands off on his pants to get rid of the stains from the grease on the underside of the frame. "I just moved here too. Well, I gotta get ta work. I'll see ya some time," he said, turning and walking away.

Haruka just shrugged before turning to the torn down bike and began to put it back together. She was glad for that guy's assistance, because if she didn't have it, it would have taken a while to get that seat down from her apartment. It had taken an hour to get it up there in the first place.

While working on her racing bike, Haruka thought about the events of last week. She had found out that her family's sponsors had dropped her like a hot potato the moment she had left home, and that she would have to start again from scratch in the motocross circuit.

That was alright with her, as she had already made a name for herself, but it meant that her funding would be really tight for a while. Hence her living in this run down dump.

She had been planning to come to Tokyo next month anyways, to attend some school called the " Infinity Academy", until her parents had sprung their little "surprise" on her. They HAD to know that she would react the way she did, but they had thought that she wouldn't be determined enough to stick to her guns.

She didn't care how good this "Saotome" guy was at martial arts, she wasn't getting engaged to him. She wasn't completely repulsed by guys like some lesbians were, but she definitely physically preferred girls. And being forced into an engagement with a guy she'd never met was NOT on her things to do list. Especially if the dowry was a full course dinner.

Dismissing these depressing thoughts, she continued to work on her bike, thinking of the races she was going to dominate in the future. Haruka just LOVED speed…

-CM-

A few hours later, Ranma was hanging from a rather thin strap about ten stories from the ground. Most people found this at least slightly nerve wracking, but Ranma just found it kind of fun.

Holding up a piece of metal while someone else welded it and bolting it into place, he looked around. There were people all around the sky scraper that he was helping work on. The foreman, Mr. Carwell, was standing on the ground with a pair of binoculars, watching them work. Ranma actually really liked his current job. He could do some pretty good strength training with the massive metal beams that were used in the framing of the building, Hand screwing the bolts with the Amaguriken was really good speed practice and just hanging in the air, to a practitioner of Saotome anything goes, was really, really cool.

As he heard the bell for break sound up, Ranma unhooked his harness, dropping a few feet to a catwalk that was close by, and then jumped down the side of the building. The first time his co-workers had seen this they had panicked. However, they were getting used to it by the end of the first week. Touching down on the ground, Ranma walked over to the outdoor storage area where he had stored his lunch and picked it up. Sitting down to eat it, he didn't notice Mr. Carwell approaching.

"Hey Ranma?" Carwell asked, surprising the younger man.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking up from his lunch with a noodle hanging from his mouth. "Wadya want, sir?" he continued, his words becoming clearer as he swallowed the offending foodstuff.

Carwell ignored the rather rude behavior of his employee in favour of talking. "I was wondering if you knew what you were doing after this job was over?" he asked, looking quizzically at the pigtailed martial artist.

"I dunno. Lookin for another job I guess," Ranma said, shrugging.

"How would you like a permanent position with the city?" Carwell said, bluntly.

"Geh?" Ranma asked, all food forgotten. If he could get permanent work, he wouldn't have to worry about trying to find a job again, at least until he got enough money to go back into school and work part time.

"Well, I talked to my friend Ichiro down in city maintenance. He says that he can fit you in at the metro centre down in Juuban after you're done on this job."

"Sure. That'd be great. Thanks boss!" Ranma said, smiling at the older man.

Carwell smiled back, walking off to call his friend. He had noticed Ranma's exceptional performance on the job on the first day that he had started working at the site, and he was very impressed with the boy. He knew that after he was finished this job the young boy would go off somewhere else and he knew Ichiro was looking for skilled labour, so he called him up. The other man seemed stuck on the fact that the boy was a Ronin, until Carwell had told him what he could do.

The foreman smirked. 'I did my good deed of the day.' he thought, walking for his trailer.

-CM-

Back in Nerima in the Tendo living room, Nodoka Saotome couldn't decide whether she was furious or hysterical. She had just finished compiling a list, cobbled together from what she could believe from many different sources of her son's accomplishments and trials in Nerima. Most of it was from Nabiki, with a little input from Kasumi as well.

Her son had fought half dragons, tentacle monsters and even a phoenix… but he had also participated in martial arts tea ceremony in a wedding Kimono, martial arts Rhythmic Gymnastics in a leotard and had at least one man madly in love with him… even if the same man wanted to kill him.

Nodoka definitely couldn't describe her son as cowardly or a bad fighter, but manly was something she had serious doubts about. Then again, since he had made it perfectly clear that he wasn't going to go through with the Seppuku pledge, did that even really matter anymore?

Nodoka held her head with her hands, feeling a migraine coming on.

"Are you all right Aunty Saotome?" Kasumi asked, having gotten back to something similar to her old cheerfulness recently, even if she was starting to tell people to do random chores for themselves. Nodoka herself didn't mind that much and Nabiki and Akane only gave token resistance, but the two old men were a positive embarrassment.

"I'm fine Kasumi dear… just reconsidering some of my decisions," Nodoka said, looking at the Saotome honour blade with a mix of respect and hatred, because it was the family honour that had driven her son away in the end.

"Don't worry Aunty," Kasumi said, serenely. "I'm sure that if you apologize to him, Ranma will forgive you. He is a very forgiving person."

Nodoka bridled for a moment at the thought of apologizing to Ranma. He had walked out on her, after all… Then she remembered the look on his face when he had left. Pure, undiluted betrayal. She sighed. "I… I'm not ready for that yet, Kasumi Chan. I hope… in time," Nodoka said, sadly.

Kasumi just nodded slightly, moving out of the room and leaving a plate of cookies in her wake.

A few minutes later, Akane Tendo entered the living room, a blue battle aura flickering around her form. Slumping down on the floor next to Nodoka, she reached out to snatch a cookie and rapidly put it in her mouth.

"Akane-chan?" Nodoka asked, noting the aura coming off of the youngest Tendo. "What's wrong?"

Akane turned on Nodoka, anger in her eyes for a second before she realized who it was. "Oh aunty, it's only you. Those… Those PERVERTS at school have started again. It's only been a week since Ranma… Ranma left and they're starting up the morning fights again. Kuno's there insulting Ranma and saying that he beat him in a fight and that he's going to take "The fierce Akane Tendo" and the "Pigtailed goddess" for his own…" She shuddered. Sometimes, Kuno's little fantasy world gave her the creeps.

Nabiki walked into the room a few minutes later. "Sorry, Sis. I tried to keep the information away from Kuno for as long as I could. Gos found out and told him."

Akane looked outraged. "Gosunkugi?" she asked, disbelievingly. Gosunkugi always seemed like a very nice guy, even if a bit creepy. He didn't seem the type to do something like that.

"Don't worry. I'm taking steps to have him punished," Nabiki said, a predatory smirk coming across her face. The first time Kuno's little horde had started, she had ignored them, since her sister was getting good practice out of them. But given how much damage that had obviously done to her, Nabiki wouldn't let it happen again.

A few minutes later Kasumi brought lunch in for the three women in the living room and herself, "forgetting" to call Genma or Soun.

-CM-

Mousse sighed as he scrubbed the Nekohanten' kitchen floor.

He had rejoiced when Ranma had declared himself immune from the Amazon laws, thinking Shampoo would finally notice him, but the girl had just gone into a case of denial. For a few days Shampoo had stated either that she was going to look for her Airen so that they could go back to China or that he was going to come to her. After that, she had actually left the Nekohanten on a search for her husband.

Since Ranma had said that he was leaving the area, Shampoo had said that her first stop was Kyoto and then on to other remote cities. Somehow, Mousse doubted that the purple haired girl was going to find anything there at all.

Recently, Mousse had been finding his Hero Worship of Shampoo sputtering. He had begun to notice that his perpetual rival, Ranma, wasn't really all that interested in the girl he loved and that Shampoo just couldn't see it. Even he wasn't that blind. The duck boy seriously regretted his part in the failed wedding, as it had literally driven away the best sparring partner he had, since Ryoga would never fight him and Kuno was an idiot.

Continuing to clean up the back of the Nekohanten, Mousse considered where he was going to go from where he was. What he came up with wasn't all that pleasing. Shampoo wasn't going to give up on Ranma, that was amazingly clear, and she was Mousse's only real reason for living in Japan. Without that reason, he really should be heading back to China… to the village, where he got even less respect than he did here.

Sometimes, he really hated his life.

-CM-

Ranma smiled as the final bell for the end of his shift rang, and he descended from the side of the building that he was working on. Signing out with the foreman, he grabbed his stuff and started walking home.

He liked Minato ward a lot better than he liked Nerima, at least most of the time. There were a few battle sites and craters around this ward, but it was nothing in comparison to Nerima. You could walk more than two blocks before you encountered a newly patched wall. In fact, even that many repairs seemed strange. There were no crazed martial artists or psychotic women chasing c-cat girls around here, so what caused that damage?

Just as he thought this, Ranma heard a rather loud roar coming from a few streets ahead of him. 'I just had to ask…' he thought, before running for the sound.

Ranma came to a stop as he saw a rather large… thing… throwing small spheres of dark power around, hitting cars and walls and just barely missing civilians. "What the heck is this?" he asked, looking around. He jumped out of the way just as a bolt of energy came very close to frying him on the spot.

"That's it!" Ranma yelled, cupping his hands in front of his body. Channeling Chi into them, he yelled, "Moko Takabisha!"

To Ranma's surprise, the creature didn't seem to really notice the blast of life force he had shot at it until it collided with it, and then only to turn in the direction that it was fired from with no other ill effects. 'What the heck IS this thing?' Ranma wondered, as the creature began to stalk towards him.

Falling into an anything goes martial arts stance, Ranma sprang out of it into a spinning kick at the monster's face. He felt a rather large stab of pain as his foot connected, all of the Chi that he had used to enhance it seeming to bleed away right before he hit the creature.

That was when he noticed it. The creature had no Chi. It had some sort of energy powering it, but it wasn't the same as his. It sure liked to absorb Chi, though. While he was caught in his introspection, Ranma was backhanded by the monster, sending him crashing into a wall and knocking him out cold.

Unknown to Ranma, for a brief instant during the battle, a symbol had flashed on his forehead, right between his eyes. It looked kind of like a trident, with the middle tine slightly smaller than the outer two and a cross shaped handle…

END.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Ranko meets Haruka - "The girl of my dreams?"

A police captain looked over the wreckage of the latest Senshi VS. Youma battle ground, shaking his head slowly. This was the third fight in the last two weeks, and they were really tearing up the streets. All that was left of the evil demon was a shattered half-moon shaped crystal on the ground, but the Senshi had sure as hell taken their toll on the local surroundings when they took it out.

Then again, this particular captain had been working in Nerima for five months before he had been transferred to the Minato force, and he had seen destruction on this level before.

Turning to a pile of rocks that used to be a partition wall between two houses, the captain was surprised to see the rocks moving. 'Is the damned monster still here?' he thought, quickly looking to see if the shattered crystal was still at the centre of it's crater.

Slowly edging towards the pile of rocks, the officer kicked it, causing some of the rocks on the top to fall to the side. After this, a hand shot out of the rubble, followed by a black haired head that was covered with brick dust. The person in the pile of debris coughed for a moment before noticing the police captain.

"Uh… Hello officer," Ranma said, most of his body still buried under a pile of rocks and his head hurting like a wall had been slammed into it.

The police officer's eyes went wide as he saw who had climbed from the wreckage. It was one of the notorious destroyers of Nerima. A group of people that the force had labeled the Nerima Wrecking Crew. Deciding that if he just ignored the problem it might just go away, the cop turned around and walked off, banishing any thoughts of a pigtailed martial artist buried in a pile of brick dust from his mind.

Ranma grumbled about police officers that acted like jerks as he pulled himself out of the rubble of the destroyed wall, wincing as he put weight on the leg that he had used to kick the Youma. While his legs had received considerably more punishment in the past, they had been reinforced with Chi energy then.

A human limb without the boost of Chi simply wasn't meant to hit something as hard as it did, and Ranma was lucky that he didn't break his leg. Actually, he was lucky that he wasn't dead, since the strange monster had drained a LOT of his Chi when it had touched him and he didn't have enough to harden himself before he hit the wall.

Dismissing the mystery of how the heck he was still alive, Ranma began to stagger down the street towards his home, and hopefully a long night's sleep in order to heal.

-CM-

In the driveway of the apartment building where she lived, Haruka was finishing up the re-assembly of her racing bike. She had had to strip it down for maintenance, a job that took most of the week, and putting it back together always took a long time. Tomorrow, she would go down to the Metro Centre and see if she could register for any Motocross races there.

As she pondered her actions in the days to come, Haruka heard a strange thumping sound. Looking up from her work on her bike, she gasped. The man who she had met this morning, who had identified himself as Ranma, was staggering down the street, holding what looked like a wooden board and using it to support himself. Dropping her tools to the ground, Haruka ran out of the driveway, for some reason feeling like she had to help the pigtailed martial artist.

She got a better look at him. His red shirt was torn up, with what looked like concrete dust all over it. His pants were in a similar condition, all accept for the right leg, which looked like it had been torn right off.

"Hey. You okay?" Haruka asked as she came into speaking range of the martial artist.

"Oh. I'm fine," Ranma slurred out, before staggering one more step forward and falling on his face.

"Man, what the heck have you been doing, fighting monsters?" Haruka asked, chuckling as she slung the dead weight of the martial artist over her shoulders, walking into the building with him. Haruka was given a few strange looks as she walked to the elevator with the battered body over her shoulder, but she ignored them as she entered and hit the button for the floor where both of them lived.

Setting Ranma up next to his door, Haruka shrugged. "Well, this is about all I can do for you Without calling the doctor or something."

Ranma shook his head slightly, muttering, "I'm all right."

"Whatever you say." Haruka muttered, heading back for the elevator to head downstairs.

As Haruka walked away, Ranma wondered why the other person would do that for him. True, he had been really beaten up, but most people in Nerima just ignored a beaten up martial artist… Then again, this wasn't Nerima. Forcing himself to his feet, Ranma fumbled around in his pockets for the apartment key. After finding it, he entered the apartment, flopping down on the bed and passing out.

-CM-

At the Gates of Time, Setsuna was casually surfing through the current events on Earth when she caught sight of a Youma attack.

Stopping the scenes on the gates from going any further, she watched the attack, watching some strange man try to fight the Youma before being knocked out and having the Senshi come and defeat it. Something had caught her eye about the man, however.

Rewinding the scene in the gates, Setsuna adjusted the angle on the young martial artist who had tried to stop the monster with life force based attacks. Since, of course, the monster was a Youma and absorbed life energy, this was worse than useless. This wasn't what Setsuna was interested in, however.

Zooming in with the gates on the young man, She caught sight of a flaring symbol on his forehead just as the monster backhanded him into a wall. Setsuna stopped the image on the gates, revealing a frontal view of the boy's face with a glowing symbol of the planet Neptune right between his eyes.

Setsuna groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Great. The re-incarnation of Neptune is a man," she muttered, thinking of the problems this would create.

The Silver Millennium had been a matriarchal monarchy. The male rulers had been less powerful than the females and the magic of the planets was harnessed in a way that insured this. What this amounted to was that if her suspicions were correct, the Senshi wouldn't have enough fire power to stop one of their major enemies.

Using one of the few powers that still worked for her reliably, Setsuna called for the transformation item of Neptune. She raised an eyebrow. It was still a pen. Usually, when the Senshi of a planet became male, the transformation item would shift to something else, in Neptune's case a small trident shaped pendent. Since the item was still a pen, it must mean that there was a female senshi of Neptune somewhere… but the gates clearly showed a young man.

Pluto was getting a headache.

-CM-

The next morning, Ranma groaned as the light assaulted his senses.

The bruises and cuts all over his body reminded him of their existence with a steady dull ache, and his lower right leg was on fire. However, he ignored the pain in order to drag himself out of bed, cooking a small breakfast and heading for the door of his apartment. He had work today, and he thanked the Kami that it was the last work day of the week.

As he walked out of the door to his apartment, Ranma caught sight of the blonde bishonen man who lived a few apartments away and who had carried him in to the building last night. "Hey Haruka-san. Thanks for the help yesterday," Ranma called, causing Haruka to turn around and notice his presence.

"No problem, Ranma-san," Haruka answered, pressing the button for the elevator. "But I do want to know what the heck did that to you. Did you get mugged or something?"

Ranma shrugged. "Nah. This really big monster thing showed up and I tried to fight it. I woulda won too, but it eats life energy or something."

Haruka blinked rapidly. She had heard the rumours of the monster attacks around this area, but had chocked them up to being urban legends, like those super-powered martial artists in Nerima. Dismissing this thought, Haruka stepped on to the elevator as it arrived, Ranma following closely behind.

At work that day, Ranma wasn't nearly as fast as usual and he had to take the lift down off of the building like everyone else. This in itself wasn't an oddity, but the way he kept glancing up at the overcast sky like he was in fear for his life drew some strange looks.

-CM-

Meanwhile in Nerima, Cologne of the Chinese Amazons was beginning to feel like some god somewhere hated her.

First the one who she had been cultivating to be a great warrior to add to her tribe had left, leaving no compensation for her. She could see WHY he would do it, but it was frustrating. Second, her great-granddaughter had gone on a fool's quest to find him. And now a male of the Amazon tribe was asking her to cast him out.

"Now Mousse, tell me exactly WHY you want me to do this?" she asked, beginning to get a headache.

"I don't want to go back home, elder," Mousse responded bluntly. He then sighed, looking down. "I know that Shampoo does not love me and that I should go back to the village, but Japan is so much better for males. We are actually treated with respect here, even with disabilities like mine."

Cologne sighed. She knew of the dangers of taking warriors out of the tribe. She KNEW that things like this would happen, but she'd never thought that Mousse of all people would be one to do this. "What will you do here, child?" she asked, some of the concern for the nearly blind boy that she normally hid showing through.

"I don't know elder. Maybe start another Cat Café somewhere. I do make half of the food here, after all," Mousse told her, standing straight and not wavering on his position.

"All right," Cologne decided, switching to Chinese for her next sentence. #Mu Tsu of the Chinese Amazon tribe, you are officially cast out, an outsider to the tribe until you prove yourself worthy for re-entrance.#

#Thank you elder,# Mousse replied, bowing and leaving the Cat Café to start his life in Japan.

Cologne sighed, looking down at her wooden staff. "It's quite all right, young one…" she muttered, before pogoing back into the back room of the Cat Café. It looked like she was going to be making the trip to China by herself.

-CM-

Coming home from the construction site that night, Ranma sighed in relief.

It had been threatening rain all day and he didn't have any story ready for if he suddenly disappeared and a girl showed up. He had been lucky, not really having any unexpected run-ins with cold water for his time in Minato. As he thought that, it started to rain.

The petite redhead sighed exasperatedly as she headed for a local bar in order to dry off and wait for the storm to at least lighten up. It had gone from a cloudy, yet calm sky to raining buckets, as it always did when she was around.

As she walked into the bar and sat down, Ranma got several appreciative looks from the men in the place, as her Chinese clothes hugged her figure rather well when they were wet. Trying her best to ignore them, she slumped down at the counter next to a green-haired woman who seemed to be well on her way to getting well and truly plastered.

The bartender walked over to the newly arrived customer, smiling at her. "What can I get you?" he asked, leaning against the bar.

"I'll take a glass of water," Ranma muttered, looking at the windows sullenly. She really hated rain. Not just because it triggered her curse, but because it always soaked through her clothes and made her really, really cold.

Ranma glanced around the bar as she waited for her water to arrive, not seeing anything of interest. There was that green-haired woman next to her, and some guys in the back corners. Nothing really else around. Deciding to try and strike up a conversation with the green haired woman, Ranma spoke.

"You're drinkin a lot there, ain't ya?"

The woman looked over at Ranma, glaring. "You shut up. You haven't had to be the time guardian before, have you?"

"Huh?" Ranma wondered, blinking.

"Oh. That's just Ms. Meiou," the bartender told her, setting Ranma's water on the bar. "She always says things like that when she gets good and drunk. Just ignore her. She's quite a nice person when she's sober, you know. Guidance councilor at Juuban Jr. High, I hear."

Ranma just slowly nodded, taking a sip out of her glass of water. As she set it down, Ranma heard the front door of the bar open. Turning to face the person who had just entered, she blinked in surprise. It was Haruka, his hair stuck to his head with moisture and his leather jacket soaked.

Coming over to the bar, Haruka sat next to Ranma. "I'll take a small glass of warm Sake," she said, laying some money on the table. "Got miserable all of a sudden, eh?" she asked, turning to the person next to her.

She stopped as she caught a look at the girl who was sitting there. The word cute failed to describe the short redhead. Haruka's mind slipped a few gears for a second, before she regained control of herself. "Hey. I haven't seen you around here," she said, finally managing to get her mouth working again. Fortunately for her, she didn't have the same problem with women that Ranma did.

Ranma noticed Haruka taking a long, ogling look at her. However she resisted the urge to beat the crap out of him for it. After all, he had helped her yesterday, and beating the crap out of one who had helped you was just not done. "I just moved in a while ago," Ranma responded, answering Haruka's question.

"Really? What's your name?" Haruka asked, gratefully taking the small saucer of Sake from the bar tender.

"I'm Um… Ran…Ko." Ranma said, almost having said Ranma instead. Telling Haruka about her curse wasn't exactly on her to do list for today.

"That's a pretty name," Haruka said, casually. "It's really appropriate, too."

Ranma twitched. She had forgotten that the name Ranko had two meanings, and Haruka had obviously taken the second. 'Must not hit him. He's a nice guy.' Ran through Ranma's head like a mantra.

Finishing up her glass of water, Ranma quickly paid the bar tender and began walking towards the entrance of the bar. "Well, the rain's let up enough for me to get home see you some time goodbye!" she said, all in one sentence, as she rush out the place.

Haruka shook herself violently when the short girl had left. 'That was about as subtle as a gunshot, Tenoh,' she congratulated herself.

She normally didn't flirt that blatantly, especially if she wasn't sure if the girl she was flirting with was receptive to lesbianism, but there was just something about that Redhead attracted her attention. In fact, she had met another person within the last couple of days who had the same quality. The weird part was, it was a guy.

Dismissing these troubling thoughts from her mind, Haruka swallowed the cup of warm Sake in one gulp and headed for the door herself.

Setsuna, unfortunately for her, snored through the entire conversation, blissfully unaware that the Senshi of Neptune and Uranus had met right next to her.

END


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Hangovers and Chaos Vortexes.

The morning after Haruka's first meeting with Ranko, Ranma was sprawled out on her bed, snoring softly. It was a Sunday, her only day off, and she was enjoying her chance to sleep in to the fullest.

At around eight-thirty she finally stretched for the final time, getting out of bed and making breakfast. After quickly eating it, she walked out of her apartment in search of something to do… and bumped into Haruka, who was obviously having the same thoughts.

Haruka blinked as she saw Ranko exiting Ranma's apartment, wearing a white undershirt and black pants. 'Does she live with him?' she wondered, feeling disappointed for some reason. It would figure if the two people in this area that she found remotely attractive were in love with each other.

"Hello, Ranko-san," she greeted, waving at the redhead anyways.

'Ranko?' Ranma wondered, finally realizing that she hadn't bothered to change back to male form when she had gotten home last night. Cursing to herself, she turned to Haruka, who was standing by the elevator.

"Hello, Haruka -san," she greeted back, walking up to stand next to the blonde.

Haruka blinked. She was sure that she hadn't told Ranko her name in the bar yesterday, so how did she know it? Deciding to satisfy her curiosity, she asked this.

"Oh… Uh," Ranma stammered, cursing herself for forgetting about that. "My brother told me about you," she lamely answered, knowing that she was horrible at lying but also knowing that this would be a REALLY strange thing to lie about.

"Your brother?" Haruka asked, stepping onto the now arriving elevator.

Ranma followed her on, answering as she went. "Yeah. Ranma. I was um… apartment sitting for him because he went on a training trip last night," she hastily added.

Mentally, Haruka gave herself the victory sign. Ranko WAS free. Deciding that she would bide her time and not make an ass of herself like she had the night before, she remained silent for the rest of the elevator ride.

-CM-

Meanwhile, in a small apartment in Juuban district, Setsuna Meiou woke up with a splitting headache. "I hate hangovers…" she moaned, rolling off of her bed and onto the floor with a soft THUD. This of course only aggravated her headache, but she ignored the pain for a moment, stumbling to her feet and heading for the bathroom.

Splashing her face with cold water, Setsuna looked into her own, slightly blood shot eyes. "Great work Setsuna. Get drunk out of your mind while looking for the Senshi of Neptune…" she grumbled, slightly disgusted with herself.

That was something that one of those psycho main streamers would do, not her. Setsuna, or rather Sailor Pluto, had a rather strange view of herself. She had a perfectly good sense of self-esteem, yet she was completely disgusted with herself on a regular basis. You see, one of the things she was still capable of doing even in her slightly low level capacity as a time mage was to view other time streams.

In most of them "Crystal Tokyo" was a possibility, and the Setsunas there had done positively disgusting things in order to insure its coming. With an unbiased perspective on the matter, Setsuna could see the pure cruelty that some of her counterparts had exhibited, not to mention the incompetence of others. There was this one she had seen recently where she had just plain decided to KILL a chaos vertex. She had learned in basic temporal mechanics class that that was a VERY bad idea, but she had tried it anyways.

Now what was that vertex's name again? It could be a good idea for her to keep tabs on it.

As she remembered the face and name of the Chaos vertex that her counterpart had tried to kill, Setsuna's eyes shot wide open. Transforming, which instantly washed away her hangover, Pluto teleported to the gates in order to confirm a suspicion of hers. Pulling up an image of the Chaos vertex, Pluto gazed into the eyes of the boy who she had seen just two days earlier, with a sign of Neptune on his forehead.

Suddenly, the headache from her hangover returned, Senshi fuku be damned. "Can My life get any worse!" Pluto wailed, shaking her fist at the murky grey sky of the gate chamber.

-CM-

Meanwhile in the district of Nerima, Ukyo Kuonji clutched a letter in her shaking hands.

It had come first thing this morning, and it was from her father. Shortly after Ranma's dissolving of all of his engagements, she had sent a letter detailing the events in Nerima to her father, hoping to get a response that told her to come back home, or at least telling her that he understood.

The letter that she held in her hands was NOT what she had expected, or wanted:

_From, Akira Kuonji._

_To, Ukyo Kuonji._

_Dear Ukyo. I have read your letter and understand the situation in Nerima. Since you have failed in your task of becoming a Saotome in order to restore our honour, you must do the only other thing that will. You must exterminate both Genma, and his son. I do not care if the boy has gone Ronin, he must be killed to restore our family honour. _

_I'm sure that you can succeed in this task, My Son._

Ukyo's hands trembled as she read the last line.

"My SON." He didn't even have the decency to acknowledge her real gender in a private letter and he wanted her to kill Ranma? She would happily get rid of the shag carpet known as Genma, but Ranma had, at one time, been her best friend and she honestly still loved him. With tears running down her face, Ukyo glared hatefully at the letter until she heard a rustling sound from her door. Looking up, she saw the form of Konatsu standing in the opening, holding a tray of tea.

"Konatsu?" she asked, blinking.

"Hello Ukyo-sama," Konatsu said, timidly. "I hope I am not disturbing you, but I thought you could use some calming tea…"

Walking into the room, he set the tray down next to the place where Ukyo was sitting. To the cross dressing Ninja's surprise, his master grabbed him in a hug as soon as he had set down the tray, sobbing into his shoulder. Clumsily, he tried to comfort her. Catching sight of the crumpled letter on the floor and the name written on the top, Konatsu wondered who Akira Kuonji was, and how much pain he should put him in for making Ukyo sama cry…

-CM-

At the closed down Cat Café, Elder Cologne had also received a letter. She held it in shaking hands, a small battle aura building up around her.

'How could they do this!' she yelled in her mind, the building aura singeing the edges of the paper.

The letter in her hands was written in formal Mandarin Chinese and it was post marked from the closest town to the Joketsuzoku village. Apparently, in her absence, her post as a matriarch had been declared up for grabs and another member of her house had been appointed as it's new leader. She had been declared a runaway from the tribe, along with Shampoo and Mousse and they would be killed on sight if they ever entered Amazon lands.

With a growl of fury and frustration, Cologne allowed her battle aura to consume the letter in flames. How could she have been so stupid? Now she had NO station back home and was in fact an outcast. and all because her great granddaughter had wanted an outsider Airen. No, it wasn't just Shampoo's fault. She had stuck around, finding the thrill of training Ranma to be fun after two hundred years of being an "All knowing elder."

Sighing, Cologne pogoed into the back of the cat café to get her belongings. Maybe she could catch up to Mousse…

-CM-

In the "noble" house of Kuno, Tatewaki was staring at two posters on his wall. One showed Akane Tendo gracefully going into a powerful punch and the other showed a jumping pigtailed girl, coming down into a kick. The only thing that marred the second image was that her kick was aimed at him.

He was staring at these two images as he thought of how to break the spell that the foul fiend Saotome had over his two loves. Even when he had left the district in disgrace, Akane still didn't show her boundless love for the blue thunder and the pigtailed girl hadn't been seen in a week!

The foul cur even ensorcelled the mercenary Nabiki Tendo, as she had refused to sell Kuno any' information on Ranma, or provide him with any pictures of her younger sister or the pigtailed girl. She'd said that she was withholding her services because of his morning tussles with Akane every day, but how could anyone have a problem with such spars?

Kuno shuddered as he heard his sister's maniacal laughter come through the mansion, echoing through it's many hallways. When she had heard of Ranma's cowardly retreat, she had just started howling in laughter and secreted herself in her chambers.

Kuno didn't know what she was doing, and he actually didn't want to.

-CM-

At the Tendo Dojo, Nabiki was sitting in her room, a book in front of her that listed the financial status of the Tendo family.

The Dojo would take a lot of money to rebuild, almost all of her private stock in fact, and they were slightly tight for cash at the moment. It was a good thing that shampoo was who knows where looking for Ranma, because her usual wall destroying would have been enough to push the family over the edge.

As she gnawed on an eraser tip between her teeth, Nabiki heard someone knocking at her door. "Come in!" she yelled, closing her ledger and turning her swiveling computer chair around to face the door.

To Nabiki's surprise, Kasumi came walking into the room, her hands fiddling with the bottom of her apron. This was strange, as Kasumi very rarely bothered Nabiki unless she needed to clean her room and she always did that in early morning. Of course, Kasumi had been delegating more chores to other people of late, and Nabiki hoped that she wasn't about to give notice that she was to clean her own room from now on. Nabiki wouldn't really mind, but she had gotten used to her older sister doing everything and had honestly taken her a bit for granted.

Breaking out of her musings, Nabiki decided to find out. "Hi sis. What's up?" she asked, leaning back in her office chair.

Kasumi's apron fiddling became a bit worse as she started to speak. "Well… Nabiki… I was wondering if we could spare some money soon? I was thinking that I would finally go to school and well, get my medical degree."

Nabiki blinked. "Huh?" she asked, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly.

"Well, you know that I was going to be a doctor when I got out of school until mother died," Kasumi said, looking worried at her younger sister's stunned expression.

Nabiki blinked rapidly. Kasumi, Miss unmarried housewife of the year, wanted to go to school? Forcing her astonishment to the side, Nabiki honestly thought about her older sister's request. Money was tight at the moment, but most universities and colleges didn't start their regular year for about three weeks yet, and if she REALLY milked Kuno for all he was worth she might be able to come up with enough money for a basic tuition by then.

With this in mind, she slowly began to speak. "I think I could pull that off… but it'll take a while. Money's kind of tight right now," she explained, seeing her sister's downcast expression. "You could end up starting school late after the beginning of the year, is that all right?"

"Really?" Kasumi asked, looking back to Nabiki's face with a radiant smile. "Thank you Nabiki!" she said, hugging her younger sister.

Nabiki blinked in surprise as Kasumi engulfed her in an almost bone crushing hug. This was VERY unexpected from the usually shy and polite girl, who occasionally seemed like an airhead. "Need… air…." Nabiki choked out, causing Kasumi to let her go with a small blush.

"I'm sorry about that Nabiki," she said, embarrassed. "Thank you so much, and I've even got the school picked out." Saying this, she fished around in the pocket of her house dress and came out with a pamphlet. Putting it on Nabiki's desk, she thanked her again before leaving the room.

"Did I wake up in the twilight zone last week or something?" Nabiki wondered, looking at the closed door. Turning to her desk again, she picked up the pamphlet, curious about where her older sister wanted to go to school. "The Infinity Academy, eh…" She muttered, reading it over.

-CM-

Downstairs, Genma and Soun were sitting at the Shogi board, having finally come out of their week long drinking binge. At the moment, they were deep in a planning session on how to get Ranma back. So far, their only plan had been to find him and rant at him until he realized the error of his ways.

The two men had far different reasons for wanting Ranma back. Soun, of course, wanted Ranma to come back so that there was a competent practitioner of anything goes martial arts at the Dojo other than Akane, who he couldn't bring himself to let fight, to her immense irritation.

Genma wanted Ranma back because he couldn't trade his son's hand in marriage for food anymore, as the people he tried to trade it to always looked the boy up on the family register and found out he was ronin. He HAD to get Ranma back! He was actually paying for his bar tabs HIMSELF recently.

On the other side of the room, Nodoka was sitting and drinking tea. She still hadn't found out everything about her son yet and therefore wasn't ready to try and find him yet. One thing she was curious of however was a technique that she had heard he used called the… "Neko Ken?" Apparently, everyone who knew of it regarded it as Genma's largest stupidity to date and even the loyal wife that she was, she could see that her husband had been VERY stupid in raising his son.

She was fingering a small book that said "advanced training manual" with the hand that wasn't holding her tea cup and was about to start reading it. Needless to say that what followed after she was done with reading it -and had recovered from the shock- is left for everyone to imagine.

-CM-

In a clearing in the middle of a small, green park, Ranma was running through practice kata, slowly working out the kinks in his muscles.

He hadn't been able to stretch well for the past week, although he had gotten some pretty good training in, and just relaxing felt really nice. As he went through a beginner's move set, extremely quickly, Ranma heard rustling in the trees nearby. Turning around reflexively, he whipped a hand out, stopping it inches from the face of… Haruka?

Haruka was walking through a city park, having decided to take a day off before she really started in the racing circuit. She had completed putting her bike back together yesterday and she had a race booked for tomorrow, but there was nothing to do today.

Hearing the sound of something moving through the air very rapidly from a bunch of bushes nearby, Haruka curiously walked over to them and looked into the clearing beyond. To her surprise, Ranma was in the middle of the clearing, moving so quickly that she could barely see him. This was quite an accomplishment, as Haruka's constant dealing with high speed motor vehicles allowed her to see things that moved very quickly.

As she watched, Haruka accidentally brushed up against a branch nearby, causing Ranma to turn around, swing out a fist and stop it a millimetre from her face. Haruka blinked a few times, before stuttering out, "H… Hi Ranma. Did I startle you?"

"Oops…" Ranma realized, lowering his fist. "I used ta get attacked a lot. Sorry about that." He blushed and scratched the back of his head.

"That's alright. Those were some pretty cool moves there, though," Haruka admitted, remembering back to Ranma's fast movements. "I'm a good street fighter, and that was way beyond me."

"Oh, that was Anything Goes martial arts. It's my school… though I don't know if I'm considered a student of it anymore," Ranma explained.

"Really? Why not?" Haruka asked, inquisitively. "Did you give up on it?"

"Nah. It was a family school. I kinda ended up going Ronin," Ranma explained, wondering if Haruka was going to walk away in disgust. For some reason, he hoped that he wouldn't.

For a moment, Haruka was taken aback at Ranma being Ronin. He didn't seem all that bad, and she wondered what he had done to get thrown out of his clan. Then again, she was a run away, which was almost as bad, and he could have had reasons for going ronin. All she said was, "Well. Those were pretty cool moves anyways, family school or not. Can you teach me?"

Ranma was surprised. Haruka wanted training? He looked strong enough, although Ranma had never seen him fight, but Ranma wasn't even sure if he was ALLOWED to teach martial arts anymore. Deciding to play it safe, he answered "Well… If I only taught ya the basics, I think It'd be all right. How about next weekend? It's gettin late now."

"Sure. That would be great," Haruka answered, noting that the sun was going down and the sky was darkening. "I guess we'd better head back to the building, then?"

"Yeah." Ranma said, and then got a strange expression on his face. "Student. For your first test, you have to keep up with me!"

"Gah?" Haruka asked, as Ranma took off into the trees surrounding the clearing. "Hey! Get back here!" Saying this, she charged after him.

END

Beta Read by Tribun


	6. Chapter 5

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Chapter 5: Departures and Arrivals.

Ranma walked down the street, his emotions mixed.

It had been almost a week since he had agreed to train Haruka and he was slightly nervous that he would screw up in the other man's training. Also, the last of the exterior framing for the building he had been working on had gone up and he wasn't qualified for interior work, so he had been told by Mr. Carwell that he should head down to the Metro centre on Monday.

He had no idea what he was going to do there, and that made him rather edgy.

As Ranma was approaching his home, a randomly dumped bucket of water hit him over the head. "Oh! I'm sorry miss," a woman called from the balcony of an apartment building next to Ranma.

With a sigh of exasperation, Ranma removed the bucket from her head and heaved it back up to the balcony that it had come from, waving at the surprised woman who now found it balanced on her railing before walking on.

Actually, Ranma was slightly glad that the curse had activated today. It had seemed to get unusually quiet in this ward, and she was beginning to wonder if it was gearing up to seriously embarrass her. Not to mention that a small part of her would have missed the change if it were ever taken away, no matter how often she denied it.

Seeing a grinning Haruka in the driveway of the apartment building, Ranma diverted her path in order to see what he was grinning about. Even if Haruka had tried to hit on her every time he saw her, he was an alright guy and she figured that he'd eventually get the hint that she completely ignored his advances.

"Hey Haruka-san! What're you so happy about?" Ranma called, noticing that Haruka was holding something in his hands.

"Oh Hi Ranko-san," Haruka said, still smiling happily, especially since the redhead had shown up. "I just won my first race here. Big prize, too," he explained, holding up the trophy and check that rested in his right hand.

Ranma smirked. "Well, I hope you're still up for training tomorrow."

Haruka looked confused for a moment before she made the connection. "R… Ranma told you about that?" she asked, blushing.

"Well, yeah," Ranma answered truthfully, smirking. "I'll be trainin ya too, some times. Ranma's got this tendency to take off on trips to nowhere at the strangest times… Mostly when it starts rainin, for some reason."

Ranma mentally smirked. She had been getting slightly better at telling half truths and lies ever since she had first started dealing with Nabiki, and so long as she wasn't under any pressure she could come up with some pretty good ones.

"Oh," Haruka said, looking slightly surprised. "Well, I'm sure training with you will be interestin," She added, stressing the last word.

Ranma resisted the urge to roll her eyes. At least he wasn't as blatant as the fiancées back home… she quickly forced her mind off of THAT particular topic, as she really didn't want to think about it.

-CM-

Back in Nerima, three girls sneezed.

-CM-

On a road deep within a shadowed forest of Japan, Shampoo let off a loud, and very unladylike sneeze, causing her head to jerk up and slam into a tree.

"Ouch!" She yelped, rubbing her head in pain. She was getting very annoyed by this point.

She had been searching the countryside for the last week and a half, and she hadn't found hide nor hair of her illusive Airen. This didn't make any sense! Males couldn't outwit Amazon trackers! Even if her Airen was part female, one of the reasons why she loved him so much, he shouldn't be able to escape her tracking skill for this long.

Stumbling out of the forest and onto a road, Shampoo began to march down it, determined to find her Airen and make him hers, no matter what obstacle entered her path. She couldn't believe that her great-grandmother, an ELDER of the Amazons, had just let him walk out of the café. She should have at least knocked him out so that they could do SOMETHING to make him reconsider.

With an annoyed growl under her breath, Shampoo continued on her trek, incidentally going in the opposite direction to Tokyo.

-CM-

Back in Nerima, Ukyo wiped her nose, annoyed that the sneeze she had just let off had made her drop a box of cooking supplies. Reaching down and picking it up, she packed it into the moving van that was sitting outside of her restaurant.

"Hey Konatsu! Bring me out the dishes, okay?" she called back into the front room of the restaurant, watching the male Kunoichi pick up a box carefully and bring it to her.

"Here you are, Ukyo-sama," Konatsu answered, handing Ukyo the box. "I still do not know why you wish to move the restaurant, Ukyo-sama…" he continued, looking at her in confusion.

Ukyo sighed. "I thought I'd explained this before, Konatsu. I'm moving to the Juuban shopping district in the Minato ward because I heard rumours of an expert martial artist doing construction work over there. I may not like the orders my father gave me," she spat the word father as if it was an insult, "but I have to try and complete them, or he'll cast me out of the clan and I won't be able to run the restaurant anymore."

Konatsu looked down sadly. "So you are going to kill Ranma-san?" he asked, worried about his master having to kill her oldest friend. Also, in his heart he knew that Ukyo would be beaten by Ranma easily, but didn't really want to think about it.

Ukyo laughed, half mirthful and half bitter. "Of course I'm going to TRY. I'm just gunna be really bad at it. Get it sugar?" she asked, winking at Konatsu.

The ninja smiled slightly, running into the restaurant in order to get more boxes.

In the shadows of a wall next to the storefront of Ukyo's shop, a black shadowed form crept away. 'I must report this to Master Kuno…' Sasuke thought, hopping up to a rooftop and heading for the Kuno estates.

Even if he really didn't want to bother Ranma, who had actually been NICE to him a few times, Orders were orders, and his master had asked him to track down Ranma so that he could challenge him. With a slightly sad sigh, the little ninja bounded into the front courtyard of the Kuno mansion, headed for his master's quarters.

He noticed dimly that Kodachi sama's mad laughter had been interrupted for a moment and wondered what had caused it.

-CM-

In the front room of the Tendo Dojo, Soun and Genma were playing their ever present game of Shogi while still discussing what they were going to do about Genma's son.

Genma, however, did this from the comfort of a full body cast. It seems that Nodoka did NOT appreciate the notion of her son being tossed in a pit of starving cats numerous times. Rumour had it, though the doctors who operated on him don't have the stomach to confirm it, that Nodoka actually castrated Genma with her katana before allowing Soun to rush him to the emergency room.

"What your son did is simply shameful…" Soun said, moving a piece.

Genma grunted in acknowledgement, as his mouth was wired shut, and made a slight movement with his left pinkie finger, the only one free of the cast, that told Soun where he wanted his piece moved. Soun cheerfully moved Genma's piece in the wrong direction, causing the Saotome patriarch to grunt in annoyance, but not do anything else.

"And what Nodoka did…" Soun said, shuddering. He remembered when he had once gotten similar wrath from his own wife, only more psychologial instead of physical, for trying to forbid her from the arts, and was in full sympathy with his friend's pain.

Genma slightly nodded, his eyes watering and twin tracks of tears coming from them.

"Ah, I know the pain of a loved one being cross with me…" Soun said, solemnly.

Genma shook his head slightly, and said a few garbled words."EI Tinq EI Brok M Nek…"

Soun just chuckled, thinking his friend had tried to cheer him up.

On the other side of the room, Nodoka was sitting across from Nabiki on a cushion. "So you have the papers ready, dear?" she asked, tapping her fingers nervously on the wood.

Nabiki smirked predatorily. She had always disliked Genma, and now she got to be part of his punishment for hurting Ranma, almost a member of her family, so badly. Passing the papers over to Nodoka she nodded. "Your divorce papers, as well as a little addition of my own. It's a donation form for a rare, or endangered animal to be submitted to the Tokyo zoo."

"Why would I want that?" Nodoka asked, confused.

"I heard they needed a new Panda after their old one died…" Nabiki said, smirking more widely.

Nodoka smiled almost as widely as Nabiki, but her smile disappeared when she looked at the papers in front of her. They were divorce papers. It was perfectly legal in this day and age, but it was so.. distasteful. It was an admission that she had been wrong in picking a husband, and that she wanted rid of him. Images of her son being tossed into a dark pit to be mauled flashed into her mind, and she grabbed a pen in preparation to sign the forms that would leave the Saotome clan with one, barely, living member.

-CM-

Master Happosai cackled as he came running into the small ward of Nerima, jumping to windows and stealing undies as he came.

He had gone on a little "vacation" right after that disastrous failed wedding between Ranma and Akane, to get away from the men who kept trying to attack him. Yeesh. How was HE supposed to know that that water was their last chance to be normal men again? Strangely enough, Ranma hadn't joined in on the chase, retreating to the Tendo roof instead.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, Happosai DID worry and care about his students. He had just been living so long that the term "Cantankerous old coot" fit him so well that his face should be in the dictionary next to it, and he was a little concerned for his latest heir.

He knew that the battle against that phoenix, Saffron, had really stressed Ranma a lot and the failed wedding on top of that just may have pushed him over the edge. All the more reason to stay out of the district for a while, as Happosai wasn't sure that he could take out a fully furious Ranma. Hell, he wasn't sure he could take Ranma if he was seriously fighting anymore. Of course, he wouldn't admit this to the boy, he had a big enough ego as it was.

Happosai cackled louder as the Tendo Dojo came into sight and he hopped into the front entrance. "Everyone, I'm home!" He yelled, Strolling into the front door.

As always, Kasumi was there with a small smile to greet him. "Oh, hello Grandfather." she said serenely.

"Hello Kasumi dear." Happosai said, walking past the eldest Tendo and the only female in the area who was completely free of his grope greetings. Groping her would probably get the Kami to call down judgment on him… again.

Walking into the living room of the Dojo, Happosai wasn't entirely surprised to see Genma sitting at the Shogi table in a body cast, but what did surprise him was that the Chi signature left on the wounds was NOT Ranma's. Looking around for the source, he saw Nodoka, serenely sitting on a cushion next to the dining table and signing some papers.

"Hi No-chan, what'cha doing?" Happosai asked, climbing up her back, incidentally groping her butt, in order to sit on and look over her shoulder.

Nodoka's eye twitched as she looked over at Happosai. "Do you want me to try and practice my sword skills on you again?" she asked, flatly.

Happosai blanched and hopped off of Nodoka's shoulder. Although she was a mediocre swordswoman, she seemed to have the same skill as Akane for hitting ANY martial artist she was angry with no matter his skill and her katana was a lot sharper than Akane's blunt instruments.

"Well, what are you doing?" he fonally asked, craning his neck to read the papers she was signing. "Divorcing Genma? What in the world did he do?"

Nodoka looked over at Happosai and spoke, still signing the papers with one eye focused on them. "I found out about the Neko Ken… and some of my husband's OTHER ill advised training ideas," she explained, glaring at Genma.

"Ah. That would explain it," Happosai said, producing a pipe from nowhere and smoking from it. "Where's my wiser student?"

Soun perked up. "I'm right here, master!" he said, running to Happosai's side.

"Not you, you moron!" the old pervert said, hitting Soun over the head and knocking him out. "I meant Ranma!"

"Ranma-kun renounced his family name and went ronin," Kasumi explained as she brought in a cup of tea for Happosai. He didn't know the new rules of the house yet and it was only right that she serve him until she could tell him about them.

Happosai's eyes narrowed. "I see…" he muttered, putting his pipe back into his mouth.

'Can't say I really blame the boy,' he thought, munching on the pipe's stem, 'But I can't let my school die out with THOSE idiots…' He shuddered as he looked at Soun and Genma.

"Thanks for the info Kasumi!" He said, before gulping down the cup of tea and hopping out the porch doors of the Dojo.

-CM-

In the Juuban district of the Minato ward, Mousse stared up at a large, empty store front. He had no visible luggage, as everything he owned, including his bed, was stuffed into his dimensional pocket. He fingered one of the real pockets in his robe, still feeling a rather large bulge.

He couldn't believe it. He had actually been given a rather large sum of money by Cologne, her saying that if he was going to be a Japanese male, he may as well get paid like one and that that was his salary for the past year and a half.

With a small smile, Mousse walked into the empty storefront, taking down the "For Sale" sign and putting up a small wooden sign with a picture of a white duck on it. The duck was wearing a thick pair of glasses and over its head rested the words "The Peking Duck Café".

-CM-

Later that day, Sailor Pluto appeared in her apartment with a flash of light. Transforming back to civilian form she began cursing up a blue streak.

The Gates of Time wouldn't show her ANYTHING on this new incarnation of Sailor Neptune. His Chaos vertex nature seemed to be throwing off the gate, but that was impossible. The only way that could have happened was if she had come into contact with him, causing her fate to hit his chaotic one.

The problem was that she had no recollection of running into the black haired boy. Even when she was drunk out of her mind, she could still remember faces, and the only two that stuck in her mind were a cross dresser named Haruka Tenoh, AKA Sailor Uranus, and a short red haired girl. No black haired boys to speak of.

With an exasperated sigh, Setsuna flicked her wrist, causing the henshin pens of Uranus and Neptune to appear in her hand. It would be risky, but she thought that she should try a partial awakening, so that the two would radiate a magical signature that she could track.

Channeling a VERY small amount of power into the pens, she sent it down their connecting lines to their Senshi. Feeling a slight backlash from each, she put them back into their designated storage spaces, deciding to wait.

That night, Ranma lay in his bed, tossing and turning. He was having a very strange dream.

-CM-

Neptune stood on the command deck of the planetary defense command centre, glaring out at the armada that was approaching. The outer planets had lost contact with all of the inner guards except for the Luna palace, and Beryl's Terran forces had overwhelmed the inners' lightly defended home worlds. Luckily for herself, Uranus and Pluto, they were the outer guards and their worlds were heavily defended.

"Lady Neptune. Terran dreadnaught coming on bearing 132.6," a sensor operator reported, his voice trembling slightly with fear.

"Focus main particle cannon on that ship. Blow it out of space!" Neptune yelled, pointing at the ship on the viewer. Anyone who saw her in court at the palace would be amazed to see her now, almost as commanding as her lover one planet over. Her usual delicate and soft spoken manner was replaced with a hard commanding edge that said "If you want to mess with me, I'll kill you."

"Yes Ma'am!" The gunnery operator said, swiveling in his chair to command three different defense installations to open up at once. The Terran dreadnaught exploded into so many pieces, the Mercurian firepower at Neptune's disposal making it into so much scrap metal.

"Lady Neptune!" The sensor man called again, his voice laced with panic. "A Terran troop carrier has managed to sneak in through the blind spot left by the dreadnaught. It's breached our hull and some sort of monsters are entering the station!"

"Serenity damn them!" Neptune cursed, walking to a lift at the back of the bridge and going down to the breached deck.

-CM-

"Deep Submerge!" Neptune yelled, throwing a ball of supercharged water at her enemy.

The monster screeched in pain, the power of the blast throwing it back into a group of its friends. From behind Neptune, a burst of laser rifle fire took down some more of the monsters, the station's security teams fighting alongside their princess to save the planet around which they lived.

As Neptune and her troops prepared for a second wave, they heard a massive stomping noise. From the hull breach and the transport on the other side came a colossal hulking form. Neptune threw her deep submerge at it, but it only staggered for a moment. The guards' laser fire had no effect at all.

After a five minute long brutal battle, Neptune was slashed badly along the side of her torso and crumpled to the ground. Desperately trying to climb to her feet, fearing her innards could spill out any moment, she saw the monster grin evilly at her before it began to glow.

-CM-

"Lady Uranus! The Neptune central defense station has exploded!" someone reported, from the bridge of the flagship of the Uranus fleet, Serenity's pride. Uranus was the home of the solar system's space navy, a rather strange oddity since Neptune had the water affinity.

Sailor Uranus's face went white as she heard these words. "Was Lady Neptune aboard the station?" She asked, her voice trembling.

"…yes Ma'am…" The sensor operator said, his face filling with shock.

Uranus's fist clenched and a small tear worked its way down the side of her face. "They are going to pay!" She yelled, then turned to her helmsman. "Set a course for the Terran fleet. Gunnery, fire at will. I want them space dust!"

The people on the bridge scrambled to obey, knowing that their leader was so furious that she may take out her wrath on them if they didn't.

"Ma'am. The queen is ordering you to withdraw to the moon," Uranus's comm. officer said, calmly.

"Ignore her." Uranus hissed, rage in her eyes. "Those bastard earthers are going to pay!"

"Ma'am?" The comm. operator said, in a state of semi-shock.

Uranus just ignored her.

After a few minutes of hard fighting, The Serenity space navy had wiped out most of the Terran force of ships. All that was left was their capital ship, the Endymion. It's massive shield system kept almost any attacks from landing, and it's main cannon kept obliterating Space Navy ships left and right.

Seeing another of her laser volleys reflect off of the Endymion's shields, Uranus gritted her teeth. "There's only one way to get rid of that ship." She said, glaring at the screen. "Anyone who wishes to survive, abandon ship now…"

The bridge crew looked at her, disbelieving. "Lady Uranus?" Her helmsman breathed, his eyes widening.

"You heard me!" She snapped, walking towards the helm post.

Reluctantly, the bridge crew sounded the evacuation order and jumped ship, leaving Uranus alone on the Serenity's pride. Sitting at the helm console, she tapped a series of commands, causing the ship's power core to start overloading and it's engines to go full out. As the Endymion became larger and larger in her view screen, Uranus whispered the name " Neptune." Right before the two massive vessels collided, lighting up the space for several kilometres around them with fusion reactor fires that blinded all that looked at them.

Ranma and Haruka both woke up in a cold sweat, the dream fleeing into the backs of their minds, leaving very little memory. "That was freaky…" They both muttered, rolling over in their beds and going back to sleep.

END.

Weebee Endnote:

A few ppl have said, "How can Ranma NOT tell Haruka is a girl? He's had lots of experience with crossdressers." To this I respond with three facts. He spent MONTHS playing with Ukyo as a kid and never figured it out, having to rip her shirt open and expose her breasts to find out. He went so far as to think his masculinity was threatened when Tsubasa wouldn't fall for him and Konatsu got close enough to almost KISS him without being found out. Ranma has a serious blind spot in this area. It's not me being funny, it's the truth!


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Training and Contemplation.

Haruka woke up the next morning feeling rather refreshed. Bits and pieces of the strange dream from last night floated at the edge of her consciousness, but she ignored them as she got dressed. It was rather amusing that although she was cross dressing as a boy, she had to take more time than an average girl in the mornings.

After getting dressed and drinking a cup of overwhelmingly strong coffee, Haruka left her apartment and walked over to knock on the apartment door of Ranma. She heard a few soft thumping sounds before Ranma opened the door, dressed in a pair of boxers and a muscle shirt.

"Oh, hi Haruka san," Ranma greeted her, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Getting the correct amount of sleep truly was a wonderful thing.

"Hi, Ranma," Haruka greeted, for some reason feeling rather warm at seeing his muscles under the shirt.

She barely refrained from shaking herself. She liked girls, and that was it. There had never been another guy who made her feel like this, so it was something about Ranma, but she'd just ignore it. After all, she felt the same way about his sister and two-timing one with the other would be not only morally wrong but a REALLY bad idea.

"Haruka, are you okay?" Ranma asked, snapping his fingers in front of Haruka's face. He had apparently drifted off, thinking about something.

"Huh?" Haruka asked, shaking her head rapidly. "Oh. I'm fine. We going to start that martial arts training you were talking about last week?"

"Oh right." Ranma said, remembering. "Just let me get changed and we can go to the park to practice."

Haruka just nodded before Ranma closed the door.

-CM-

About twenty minutes later in the small park near the apartment building, Ranma was standing in a clearing with Haruka on the other side. "Alright Haruka. Are you ready?" he asked, falling into a defensive stance.

Haruka nodded doubtfully. "What is this supposed to do again?" she asked, internally cringing at the prospect of actually fighting Ranma. She had assumed that he would do what her self-defense instructors had done before, show her the moves and then have her use them on him, but she was very much mistaken, as she was about to find out.

"This is gunna let me check your skill level," Ranma explained, moving one hand in front of him and making a "come here" gesture with it. "Now c'mon and give me all ya got!"

Haruka nodded, charging at Ranma with her best right hook. Ranma flowed away from it, coming around behind her and trying to poke her in the back. Much to Ranma's surprise, Haruka twisted out of the way, Ranma's finger glancing off of her shoulder. Ranma twisted out of the way of a return punch, coming up from below and landing a finger in her stomach.

The blow trading went on for about half an hour and Ranma began to notice what kind of fighting Haruka preferred. He seemed to be a lot like Ranma himself, but a lot less refined. He was slightly more dependent on speed instead of strength, his body slightly thinner than was needed for a muscler.

'This is gunna be fun!' Ranma thought, thinking that the type of training Haruka needed required Ranma to fight back.

This wasn't going to be like Akane's training at all, since Haruka had the speed already and just needed some endurance and toughness. This basically meant that Ranma could actually fight him instead of dodging all the time to build up speed. Deciding to end the fight since he had gotten an idea of Haruka's skill level, Ranma extended a hooked leg and tried to snag Haruka around the ankle. Since this move was often used in street fights, Haruka saw it coming and retaliated by stomping on the leg, causing it to hit the ground.

Ranma grinned. This would definitely be more interesting than training Akane. Surprising Haruka, who thought that Ranma's leg was now immobilized, Ranma brought it around in a sweep and knocked the still planted leg out from under Haruka, sending her to the ground.

A few minutes later, Haruka lay panting on the ground, Ranma sitting next to her. "Is, this what, you do, every day?" she wheezed, clear incredulity in her voice.

"Nah," Ranma waved it off, waiting for Haruka to look relieved. "I usually do a lot more."

Haruka's head, which had been raised off of the ground to ask the question, crashed back down with a thump.

Ranma sighed, picking Haruka up and walking over to lay her on a bench. Maybe this wasn't the best way to train a new student in Anything Goes… but it sure was fun for him!

Later that day, Haruka was sitting in a tree, looking incredulously at Ranma. "Fall?" she asked, her eyes almost popping out of her head.

"Yup," Ranma told her cheerfully from his place on the ground.

"It'll kill me!" Haruka complained indignantly, wondering what kind of loon she had decided to train with.

"No it won't!" Ranma said, still cheerful. "Pops did it to me when I was eight. It could break some bones, though. Don't worry. I'll catch ya if that looks like it's gunna happen."

"Gee, thanks…" Haruka said dryly, before letting off a sigh of resignation and rolling off of the branch. She hit the ground with a hard thud, raising a hand with the two fingered pain ward in place. "Ouch…" she muttered, rolling over and glaring at Ranma. "I thought you said you'd catch me?"

"I said I'd catch you if you were gunna break a bone," Ranma clarified, smirking evilly at her.

"Oh," Haruka said, dryly.

-CM-

In the Juuban shopping area, five girls were wandering around, trying to find something to do. The Droid attacks had let up a bit recently, but Ami said that it was just the calm before the storm and that the Dark Moon family was going to start their final attack any time now.

The stress was building up, so the group decided to take a trip to the shopping area to relax. The only fighting that had occurred was the obligatory squabbles between Rei and Usagi, but they were standard procedure. Just as the meatball-headed blonde was about to become the target of another fiery outburst from her black haired best friend, Minako spoke up.

"Hey guys. Isn't that a new restaurant?"

"Hmm?" Makoto, the resident food critic and chef of the group said, looking to where Minako was pointing. "The Peking Duck?" She asked, giggling at the cute image of a white duck on the sign.

Usagi looked as well. New restaurants equaled more food, a definite benefit in the Tsukino daughter's eyes. "Hey. Let's go in and try it out!" She said, grabbing Rei by the arm and dragging her behind as she ran excitedly towards the building.

"Let me go meatball head!" Rei shouted, being dragged behind her friend.

A sweat drop formed on Ami's temple as she followed her friends, wondering how Usagi could drag someone through the air like that.

Mousse looked up from writing a "Waitress Wanted" add when he heard the bell above the door to his new restaurant tinkle. Seeing a group of five girls entering, he spoke. "Hello. Welcome to the Peking Duck!" He truly hated saying that every time someone came in, but it was part of the trade.

The five girls walked into the restaurant, and seeing that it currently only had the chairs around the counter, sat down there. For some reason, the brown haired tall one had gotten a glazed look in her eyes, but he ignored it in favour of walking up to the blonde, who seemed to be the leader of the little group, judging by how she had come in dragging the black haired girl.

"Hello miss. Can I take your order?"

The bubbly blonde smiled, saying, "Can I have an extra large bowl of Ramen, beef topping?"

Mousse nodded, looking strangely at the girl. She seemed rather small to eat an extra large bowl, but then again, he HAD seen Ranma-chan eat… Quickly taking the other girls' orders, except for the brunette, who just muttered, "He looks like my old sempai…" He quickly returned with three regular and one extra large bowls of Ramen, setting them in front of their respective owners.

"Is there something wrong with her?" he asked, pointing at the brunette.

One girl, who looked rather a lot like Akane Tendo, shrugged. "She gets like this sometimes. She'll snap out of it eventually," she explained, taking a small taste of her Ramen. "This is quite good."

"Thanks," Mousse said, blushing slightly. "Ancient Chinese recipe."

The brunette snapped out of her dazed state instantly. "Ancient recipe, you say?" She asked, interestedly. She was always willing to pick up free cooking tips, especially for something that her friends liked.

"Yep, a secret of the restaurant," Mousse explained, cheerfully.

Makoto sighed dejectedly.

"So you just started this place?" A second blonde, this one with long hair and a red bow tying it up, asked.

"Yeah. I came from the Cat Café in Nerima, but this is the first place I've actually owned," Mousse explained, going over to take Usagi's empty Ramen bowl. Yep, she definitely ate like Ranma, there wasn't even any broth left in the bottom. Licked clean. Slipping the plate into one of his sleeves, Mousse put it into his stuff space for cleaning later.

The blonde clapped. "That was a pretty neat trick!" she said, looking for the bulge of the plate in his robes.

"Huh?" Mousse asked, blinking at her. "Oh. How I got rid of the plate? That was just part of my martial arts style."

After about half an hour of eating and talking in the Peking Duck, The five Senshi left, Makoto having a new crush. 'He can cook, he's handsome AND he knows martial arts?' she thought, 'He's PERFECT!'

Minako had similar thoughts running around in her head. Ami sighed as she looked at the two boy-crazy Inner Senshi. There they went again… Rei was pretty much indifferent and Usagi was just happy that Mousse had decided to give her one of his XL Ramen on the house because she had bought so much food.

In the restaurant, Mousse was holding a bit of money and thinking, 'If those girls are the type of customers I always get, I'll be perfectly happy here…'

-CM-

Near the end of that day, Haruka was laying on the ground, sprawled out, while Ranma knelt beside her. She was feeling really bruised and battered, but on the plus side she had learned to fall from truly ridiculous distances without getting hurt. True, it was hard training, but it got it's point across.

Groaning, she said, "Man that hurts…" while massaging her shoulder.

"You can stop if ya want." Ranma said, concerned for Haruka. Even if he loved the art now, he had been FORCED to do this at an early age, and his first few years on the road were hell. Although he was going to push Haruka as hard as his father pushed him, he didn't want Haruka to be forced into it.

"Nah. I'm fine," Haruka said, taking her hand from her shoulder. "I just wasn't expecting this, is all. I thought you were going to teach me basic Kata or something, not throw me out of a tree to teach me how to fall."

"Well, learning how to fall is the first part of any martial art," Ranma explained, reasonably.

Haruka shrugged. Her self-defense instructors had said the same thing, but somehow she doubted they meant three meter drops out of tall trees and into rolls. The two fell silent for a moment, before Haruka spoke up again. She might as well try, right? "Ranma… I was wondering something."

"Yeah?" Ranma asked, looking curiously at Haruka.

"I was thinking, do you think you could convince your sister to go out with me?" Haruka asked, realizing that this was by far the lowest she had EVER gone to get a date, but with the way Ranko was completely ignoring her, it had to be done.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, his brain taking a second to process the request. When he finally did, his eyes widened. "Um… Haruka… I don't think I can do that." he said, trying to keep an eye twitch down.

"Why not?" Haruka asked, actually curious.

"Well, Ranko's… Well… She REALLY, REALLY doesn't like guys," Ranma explained, putting the entirety of his vehemence behind that sentiment.

Haruka blinked. She was hoping that Ranko was interested in girls, but a hardcore lesbian wasn't expected. She seemed so… feminine and small, despite the course manner of her speech. Of course, it would be easy enough to just tell her that Haruka was actually a girl, but someone who was as set against men as Ranma was saying that Ranko was just might reject her just for her cross dressing. Shrugging it off, she decided to take the risk.

"Fine… Can you at least ask her to meet me tomorrow afternoon? It's not for a date or anything, I just want to tell her something."

Ranma considered for a moment. Haruka seemed really hopeful about this, and he was a pretty good friend. Not to mention that he was now Ranma's student. Besides, Ranma would definitely not let anything happen. Might as well humour him, at least so that he didn't ask again.

"All right Haruka. I'll see what I can do," Ranma responded, resignedly.

"Thanks Ranma!" Haruka said, grinning widely. She couldn't believe she was actually DOING this. She sounded like a lovesick school boy, and that was disturbing by itself. "Well, should we head back now? It's getting late."

Ranma nodded, getting up. "Can you walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," Haruka said, dragging herself off of the ground and trying to take a few wavering steps. She stumbled on her third step and almost planted her face into the ground, Ranma's fast catch the only thing preventing it.

"Yeah, sure…" Ranma mocked, slinging Haruka over his shoulder in much the same way that she had two weeks earlier. "Let's get you back home," he decided, walking towards the building.

That night, Ranma lay in bed, wondering what was going to happen tomorrow. He was starting a new job and Haruka wanted to tell 'Ranko' something. Haruka was a friend, so he hoped that he wouldn't have to hurt him too badly the next day.

With a tired sigh, Ranma fell into a restless sleep, worries playing through his mind.

End

Beta Read by Tribun


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Distractions and high speed Motor Vehicles don't mix.

That night, Ranma and Haruka had another set of dreams, a combination of the last of Pluto's fading magic pulse combined with their current thoughts.

In Ranma's, he was in the midst of a great hall, a woman held in his arms and slow dancing. No, to be more accurate, he and the woman were holding each other and she was leading. Ranma hadn't really danced much, and had tried hard to forget the challenge involving it, but he thought this was odd.

After several minutes of dancing, where Ranma saw several other couples, including a silver haired girl and a black haired man who seemed to catch his attention for some reason, he turned to his dance partner and the two came in for a kiss. Ranma's eyes widened as he saw the woman's face. Her form was completely feminine, if a bit well muscled, but she had the face of Haruka.

"Gah…" Ranma said, sitting up in his bed.

He wasn't nearly as shaken up as a nightmare would normally make him, and this was clearly not in league with his Kuno-related nightmares, but the shock of seeing Haruka's face on that girl had jolted him out of the dream state. For a brief moment, he caught himself wishing that Haruka really was a girl, because he was quite possibly one of the nicest people he had met in a while.

Shaking his head and wondering where these strange thoughts had come from, Ranma pulled his covers up over his head, trying to get back to sleep.

-CM-

One apartment over, Haruka was having a similar dream.

She was in the same grand hall, wearing a formal dress and dancing with someone. Although she was leading, the person she was dancing with seemed to shift constantly between three different bodies. Looking at it, she briefly saw the form of a beautiful blue green haired woman with delicate eye brows and a narrow facial structure. After that, the face shifted to show Ranko, the body going with it. A few seconds later, the body shifted again, luckily exchanging it's formal gown for a suit of armour as it became Ranma.

'What the hell's going on?' Haruka wondered, but continued to play out the dream until she woke up.

The next morning, Haruka stood in her bathroom and in front of her mirror, looking at herself. She hadn't put as much effort in her disguise today and some feminine lines could be seen in her body and face. She had done this so that it would be easier to prove that she was a girl to Ranko.

There was the root of the matter.

Ranko was the only person, well the only girl, to make Haruka feel the way she was feeling right now. She had had crushes before, but nothing quite this… insistent… as if there was some sort of link tugging her to her. The strange thing was that the same link seemed to apply to her brother as well, and it only bothered Haruka consciously. Her subconscious had no problem with it.

Combing her hair into its traditional cut, Haruka left her apartment and headed for the dirt track at the metro centre. She hated racing on dirt tracks, as it always messed up her bike.

-CM-

"Damn it Tenoh, Stay focused!" a large, slightly pudgy man shouted, looking at the dirt track in slight horror.

One of the new racers he had hired, one who had seemed like a real winner the last few races and who was famous for his racing expertise, was turning into a complete rookie right before his eyes. He was currently yelling because Haruka had missed one of the turns, sending her bike into the hay bales that lined the side of the track. Luckily, this was a practice, not a race, or Haruka would have lost for sure.

Haruka picked herself up from the pile of hay that her bike was buried in, brushing off her racing suit. "Sorry about that… I guess I just wasn't focusing.." she excused herself, looking down. She hadn't been able to get her meeting with Ranko in the afternoon out of her mind ever since she had first gotten in today, and it showed.

"Well get your focus back! If you perform like this in the race on Wednesday we won't be needing your services anymore!" the fat man barked, glaring at Haruka.

She nodded, knowing that the glares were deserved. A screw up like that in a real race could cost her a place in the final five, let alone a winning spot. Picking up her bike again, Haruka got on it and continued down the track. Right after she had left sight of the smashed hay bales, A maintenance man showed up carrying a new one.

He was new, only showing up today, but he was apparently very good and came highly recommended.

"Hey boss. Where do ya want this?" Ranma asked, hefting the light bale in one hand.

"Put it over there and get rid of the smashed one, Ranma," the fat man said, pointing.

Ranma obliged, slightly wondering if coming here was such a good thing after all. All they had been having him do today was little errands, nothing really hard at all. Truthfully, it was kinda boring. He hoped that things would get better sooner or later.

-CM-

In the Juuban district, many people stared in disbelief as a small old woman pogoed down the street on a gnarled wooden walking staff. "It… it's a Youma!" one man screamed, running off in terror. Everyone else just looked at him strangely. Sure she was kind of odd looking, but she hadn't tried to drain anything yet and she wasn't all THAT odd looking.

Cologne briefly wondered what a "Youma" was and whether she should have pounded that boy over the head with her staff before she found the place that she was looking for.

Looking at the sign in the window, she had to smile. Mousse wasn't exactly her best student, but he knew of very interesting ways to use his cursed form.

As Cologne opened the door, Mousse looked up from where he was polishing one of the new tables that he had just bought that morning. "E… elder?" he asked, dropping his wet rag and looking at her in surprise.

"Not anymore child," Cologne sighed, coming into the restaurant.

"What?" Mousse asked, blinking from behind his thick glasses. "What do you mean you're not an elder anymore?"

"I was kicked off of the council and banished from Amazon lands," Cologne explained, evenly. Most of her anger at the council's decision had been replaced with resignation soon after she had heard of it, and she was now beginning to try and rebuild her life in Japan. "I was coming here to see if I could stay here, and work for you."

"Don't you mean you want the restaurant?" Mousse asked, his tone slightly resigned, but willing to help Cologne, especially since she had been the one to teach him his hidden weapons style.

"Of course not!" Cologne cackled, pogoing over to the counter. "An old lady like me can't be running a restaurant, now can she?" she asked, giving Mousse a wink.

"Really?" Mousse asked, smiling. "Well then, we do have a waitress position open."

"I'll take it," Cologne said, before reaching out and taking Mousse's hand. She wasn't an Amazon elder anymore and she couldn't bear to take Mousse's new business from him, but she could help out, and maybe train him.

-CM-

A short distance away, Happosai was running through the streets and cackling. Who would have known that Minato ward held so many silky darlings!

He still had to find Ranma, but it could wait for just a while, couldn't it? The best part of it was that he had heard there were some sort of mini-skirted protectors running around the ward. Genuine magical girls! He wondered what magical girl panties would do to his Chi reserves. With another happy cackle, He hopped up to a nearby house's clothes line and stole a bra.

Ikuko Tsukino blinked as a blur came running past, snatching a pair of Usagi's panties from her hands just as she was about to put them up on the line. "Oh my, what in the world was that?" she wondered, opening and closing her now empty hands.

"What's the matter mom?" Usagi asked, sticking her head out of the back door.

"Nothing dear…" Ikuko muttered, going back to hanging up the laundry.

-CM-

In Nabiki's room at the Tendo Dojo, Nodoka was holding a small piece of paper with various locations written on it. "Nabiki-chan, what is this?" she asked, looking it over.

"Those are the locations of recent strange events around Tokyo. I figured Ranma wouldn't leave the city, so I called a few friends. If I were you, I'd check out the construction worker in Minato first," Nabiki said, handing Nodoka a small envelope.

"What's this?" Nodoka asked, fingering it.

"Money's a bit tight right now, but it's some of what I owe Ranma… for some things he did for me," Nabiki said, deciding to omit that the money was for the photos of Ranma's girl side that she had sold at school. The reason why Nabiki and Nodoka were currently sitting in Nabiki's room and planning a trip to go find Ranma was because of a series of events that had occurred earlier.

Nodoka had given Genma his copy of the divorce decree, and Genma, even in his sickened state, had… disagreed with it. He had tried to tell her, as far as she could tell through his wired shut mouth, that she was his wife and that she should obey him. They'd find the "worthless boy" eventually, and she shouldn't worry.

This wouldn't have made any difference, except that Soun had sided with his old friend on the matter. He had said that if Nodoka went through with the divorce of Genma that he wouldn't allow her on his property, and she had gone ahead anyways. The problem was that the Saotome home was TECHNICALLY Genma's property, and since she was barred from the Tendo compound she was effectively homeless.

"Thank you Nabiki…" Nodoka said, some tears coming from her eyes.

She had known that divorcing Genma would cause problems, but throwing her out on the street was NOT supposed to be one of them. She just hadn't thought Soun would have enough spine to do what he had, even with all three daughters' strenuous opposition. Soun would get his though, as Akane had volunteered to TRY and wreck his and Genma's meals if he went through with this.

If Akane's normal cooking was bad, what would happen when she was TRYING?

As Nodoka walked down the stairs from Nabiki's room, she grabbed a wooden bokken that Akane had offered her to "Beat off the perverts." The Saotome honour blade was part of Genma's family and she had had to leave it behind.

"Take care aunty…" Akane said, sniffling slightly.

"Oh yes. Good luck!" Kasumi said, her usual smile cracking to be replaced by a glare at her father from time to time.

With one look back at the three sisters, Nodoka Kamiya walked out of the front door in search of her son.

-CM-

Haruka gulped nervously as she walked around the corner leading to the front entrance of the Metro centre. Seeing Ranko standing there, leaning against a wall, she sighed in relief.

"Hello, Ranko!" she called, walking over to the short redhead.

"Hi Haruka," Ranma said in a slightly nervous tone, before continuing, "Ranma said you want to talk to me?"

"Um… Yeah," Haruka said, looking very nervous for a second. "Can we go somewhere private to talk about this? It's kind of personal." She glanced around, seeing several of the other bikers hanging around. Them knowing about her was ALL she needed.

Shrugging, Ranma nodded. This was getting very close to what she had learned from her dealings with the fiancées was "Date Territory," but she just shrugged it off for the moment. Allowing Haruka to lead her to a nearby park, of which there seemed to be a large amount in this ward, Juuban especially, the two stopped in a copse of trees.

"What was it you wanted to tell me, Haruka?" Ranma asked, a tinge of impatience entering her voice.

Haruka shrugged. May as well get it out of the way all at once. "I'm a cross-dresser."

"Huh?" Ranma grunted in surprise, looking at Haruka. Sure, he was a bit Bishonen, but he wasn't cross dressing. "I don't understand."

"Ranko, I'm a girl. I dress like a boy so that I can race," Haruka patiently explained, wondering exactly how dense Ranko was. She had to be at least a bit suspicious. There was no way Haruka was THAT good at cross dressing, was she?

Ranma blinked slowly for a second, before her eyes glazed and she did an aura scan of Haruka. Really, she should have done this on the first day of their training, but she had been a bit distracted by having fun.

Ranma raised an eyebrow as she saw Haruka's aura. It actually looked a lot like hers. The Male and Female parts of the aura were almost at a perfect match, but looking closely she saw that the female side was slightly more powerful. This convinced her. A person cannot have more Chi of the opposite sex than their own, or really bad things happened. Well, not bad exactly but just weird.

It was why Ranma's aura had eventually shifted itself to have an almost equal amount of male and Female Chi, to keep her from going crazy, or developing multiple personalities during the gender changes that were caused by the curse. This also brought a bit of acceptance of the curse as a side benefit.

"…Ko! Are you okay?" Haruka asked, snapping her fingers in front of Ranma's face. Ranma had apparently drifted off into thought there, or she had taken too long to read the aura.

Haruka was worried as she saw Ranko's eyes glaze over and her eyebrows start twitching. Was she going insane or something? After a few minutes, she finally got tired of waiting and snapped her fingers in front of Ranko's face, causing her to snap out of it.

"Sorry Haruka… I was just reading your aura," Ranma said, shaking her head. "So you're really a girl, huh?" she asked, although she now already knew the answer.

Haruka nodded. 'Reading my aura? I guess I'll ask her later,' she thought, before noticing a strange look come over Ranko's face.

"That was a big secret of yours, eh?" Ranma asked, feeling slightly bad that Haruka would come out with this, apparently trusting her with something really important while she kept her curse hidden.

"Well, yeah. I don't think they'd let me race if they knew, and it's all that's keeping me fed," Haruka said, wondering what the look on Ranko's face was about. She was also wondering what Ranko's reaction to her true gender would be. She had kind of been hoping for an instant earth shattering kiss, but she had seriously doubted that.

"I'll be right back!" Ranma said, before dashing off. Right before Haruka was going to go after her, Ranma reappeared with a cup of what looked to be steaming water in her hands.

"What's that for?" Haruka wondered, going on guard in case Ranko threw it at her.

"It's to show you my secret…" Ranma said, then smirked. "Well, I don't have as much of a problem with you flirting with me anymore, but I don't know if you're gunna want to after I show ya this." Saying this, she tipped the water over her head, it triggering the Jusenkyo curse as soon as it touched the top of her head.

For a second, Haruka saw an image of the dream she had had the night before, before she did a very.. ladylike thing and promptly fainted.

Ranma rushed forward and grabbed Haruka, looking down at her in confusion. He had gotten a lot of responses to the curse before, but never that one. Shrugging, he headed back towards his and Haruka's apartment building.

END!

Beta Read by Tribun


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Revelations.

As Ranma was lifting up Haruka to carry her back to his apartment, Sailor Pluto was watching the scene through the time gates. She had been tracking Haruka, in hopes that she would run into the elusive Neptunian heart crystal carrier, for the past half day or so, and now her efforts had paid off.

The problem was, she REALLY hadn't been expecting what she had seen. Sure, she had seen a few men change into women in her lifetime, and vise-versa, but one of them being one of this solar system's Senshi was rather unexpected. Also, the method of transformation, apparently water based, may have an… interesting interaction with the powers of Neptune.

One good thing was that this boy -or was it girl?- had met Haruka already and Pluto wouldn't have to barge into their lives from nowhere like she usually did. Maybe with a bit of preparation, she could avoid the whole cold and heartless bitch Outers phenomenon that occurred when ten thousand years worth of a warrior's memories were shoved into one's head in less than twenty seconds.

It had caused them to go into full life or death battle mode several times when it wasn't warranted in the main line, and had ultimately cost them a good deal of trust with the Inner Senshi, not to mention a fare amount of distress. With a new plan to handle the outers a bit more gently than her mainstream counterparts, Pluto teleported out of the chamber of the time gates and back to her apartment.

She had some calls to make.

-CM-

Ranma watched over Haruka's sleeping form, in the main room of his apartment. He didn't know where Haruka's apartment keys were and the woman hadn't woken up yet. Ranma wondered why she had fainted, as he had never gotten that particular reaction to his curse before and he was really worried about her. Another worry on his mind was the curse, and how she would react to it.

He threw a sidelong glance at a small glass of water and kettle that sat next to the bed, just in case he had to explain.

Haruka groaned as she came to consciousness, feeling a damp rag on her forehead and an unfamiliar bed under her body. Cracking her eyes open, she saw Ranma's face hovering over her, looking down concernedly.

She had had the strangest dream. She had gone to talk to Ranko, and Ranko had poured water over her head and turned into Ranma. Come to think of it, she had had two dreams like that recently. She must REALLY like both Ranko and Ranma in order to have a dream like that. Wait a second. Ranma was looking down at her concernedly, she had a cold cloth on her head.

She said the only thing that came to mind. "That wasn't a dream, was it?"

Ranma blinked. That wasn't the first thing he had expected Haruka to say, but he answered anyways. "You mean me changing from a girl to a guy?"

Haruka nodded as she sat up in the bed, taking a look around. She was in a rather small room, that looked like one of the smaller apartments in her apartment building. There wasn't much in it other than the bed she was laying on, a backpack and a hot plate. Ranma was there as well, of course.

"Um, How did you change like that, then?" she asked, that being the only thing she could think to say at the moment.

Ranma sighed. "Well, I've got this curse. I turn into a girl when I'm hit with cold water and back with hot water. I didn't wanna tell ya 'cuz most people who find out think I'm some sorta freak or pervert. I can understand if ya don't wanna train with or hang out with me anymore…"

At the last line, he sounded really depressed. He had enjoyed the one training session that he had had with Haruka, and even the small conversations they had in the halls, or the attempts at pickup lines by Haruka at the elevator if Ranma happened to be in girl form were kind of pleasant, even if the latter had disturbed him slightly..

Haruka took Ranma's words in and thought about them. Ranko was really Ranma?

Ranma was a guy, She liked girls. Actually, she was just more physically attracted to girls and Ranma wasn't really all that bad a guy. The curse was strange, and it was kind of a letdown that he was really a guy, but she thought that she could learn to deal with it, especially since he was reasonably good looking for a specimen of the male side of the species.

He cerainly was not like the buffoonish suitors her mother had presented her with. The worst of them had almost entirely made her swear off men after enduring several minutes of his delusional rantings.

Also, a curse like that HAD to bring its share of people who considered Ranma a pervert, just as her own choice in dress and partners labeled her in the same way.

Coming to a decision, Haruka spoke. "Hey, don't talk like that. I'm still going to learn from you. It may hurt like hell, but you're really effective at training… Besides, that girl side of yours is really cute, and I guess your guy side isn't that bad either."

Ranma's face turned a shade of red at Haruka's last two comments, but his mind lingered on the first. Ranma's training of Haruka HAD hurt… a lot. He would never have, knowingly, put a girl through that. "I'm sorry about the trainin. Guess I shoulda taken it easier on you…" he muttered, looking down again.

Haruka punched him in the arm. "Stop that! I can take one heck of a beating, and you know it," she made clear, remembering back to a comment Ranma had made on her being very good for a street brawler.

Ranma smirked. "I guess ya got a point." Then he laughed. "Why is it I always end up hangin around with such complete and total tomboys?"

Haruka chuckled as well. "Yep, 100 percent Tomboy right here," she said proudly, pointing at her male hairstyle and clothes.

"You really aren't all that freaked out by the curse, are you?" Ranma asked, looking serious all of a sudden.

Haruka shrugged. "Not really. It surprised me a lot, obviously," she admitted, blushing at the fact that she had fainted when she had first seen it. "But you seem to be taking me being a girl well, too."

"That's because I'm glad you're a girl…" Ranma said, before clamping his mouth shut and turning red.

"Is that so?" Haruka said, smirking slightly. "Well I'm glad you're half girl, too."

"Hey!" Ranma yelled, as Haruka left his apartment, laughing.

Ranma smiled slightly after Haruka had left. That had been a VERY strange discussion, and he had said some things that had mortally embarrassed him, but it had been kind of fun. Seeing that he had been watching over Haruka for quite some time, Ranma flopped down in his bed and pulled his covers over himself.

The bed was still warm from Haruka's presence earlier, and the extra warmth lulled him to sleep faster.

-CM-

Late that night, Setsuna held two envelopes in her hand, walking down to a post office. Fingering the written addresses on the sides of the letters, she dropped them in a local post box, to be mailed to the two people they were meant for. With a slight satisfied smile, she walked back to her home, wondering what Ranma and Haruka's faces would look like when they found the letters in a couple of days.

-CM-

The next day, Foreman Carwell was sitting in his trailer, writing down some figures, when a knock came at the door. Putting down his pen, he called out to whoever was on the other side to come in.

Much to Mr. Carwell's surprise, he saw an older woman in a formal Kimono, carrying a bokuto in her hands. Somehow, the Bokken looked out of place, as if she was supposed to carry something else, but he had no idea what. "Can I help you Ma'am?" Carwell asked, sitting up to full attention in his chair.

The woman sat down in a chair across the desk from him and spoke. "Yes, I am looking for a martial artist who I heard was working on this construction project," the woman said, seemingly hopeful.

"A martial artist?" Carwell thought, before something hit him. The boy who had worked on some of the exterior framework was a martial artist, or at least he had said he was. The way he had kept doing physically impossible things, Carwell was more inclined to believe that he was some sort of magic user. Yes, Carwell believed in mages. Ever since the Senshi had fought a Youma in the centre of his construction site a few months before, it would be kind of like denying that the sky was blue to deny that magic existed. Getting back to the topic, he began to speak slowly. "Yes, we had a martial artist working here a few days ago. He left for another job, though. I believe his name was Ranma."

"That's him." The kimono clad woman confirmed, nodding her head. "Can you tell me where he lives or where he is working?"

Carwell furrowed his brow. "Could you tell me why you need that sort of information? I'm not really allowed to just hand it out, you know. It's against government privacy regulations."

The woman looked down for a moment. "I'm his mother. I was trying to find him because he left home." She said, and Carwell could hear the shakiness in her voice that was no doubt caused by tears.

Carwell dug around in his desk, coming out with a card with the Metro centre's address written on it. "He works here. I can't give you his address, at least not without proof that you're his mother, but I can give you this."

"Thank you." Nodoka said, taking the card and getting up.

As Nodoka was about to leave Mr. Carwell's office, he spoke up again. "Good luck." Nodoka smiled at him before walking out of the trailer and onto the noisy construction site. She was one step closer to finding her son. She had, as Nabiki had suggested, checked this lead first and it had paid off. She still had enough money in Nabiki's envelope for a few days in a hotel, and she hoped that she could find her son by then, because if she couldn't she would literally be out on the street until she could restore connections with her clan, which had cast her out upon her marriage to Genma. She hadn't understood this when she had married, but she was beginning to now.

-CM-

In Nerima, in front of Furinkan High, Tatewaki Kuno stood, holding a bokuto and waiting for Akane Tendo to come running into his arms. He knew that the foul sorcerer's spell just HAD to be broken today. Surely his magnificence had overwhelmed it by now, and Akane would run into his…

-BAM-

Akane looked back at the toppling form of Kuno as she ran into the school, smiling as she saw that the school yard was empty of any other perverts. Nabiki had managed to get rid of most of them with subtle threats of blackmail exposure, and the rest had been easy enough to deal with in other ways. The only one who wouldn't, as usual, learn was Kuno, who kept insisting that Ranma had an evil spell on Akane and that she really loved him. Yeah, right.

Of course Ranma was a real sore spot for Akane nowadays, and the constant insulting of him got Akane to beat Kuno even worse, causing him to have been checked into the hospital twice in the last week.

Fortunately, Akane's little revenge plan against her father had worked like a charm, and he cowered whenever meal times came around now. She couldn't believe that He could have done something like… THAT to poor aunty Nodoka, and after her son had left her, too.

Of course, the entire ward had been falling apart ever since Ranma left.

Ukyo and the Amazons had left, Kodachi had apparently COMPLETELY flipped and the Tendo family was falling to pieces. The only person who was seemingly not affected was Nabiki, but you could never tell with her. With a sigh, Akane headed to Ms. Hinako's class, hoping that the little teacher wouldn't drain her today.

Back in the front school yard of Furinkan, Tatewaki Kuno lay on the ground, twitching occasionally.

That was IT! He had to go and destroy the sorcerer in order to lift the spell he had on Akane and the Pigtailed girl. Banishing him in a titanic battle apparently wasn't enough. Maybe he would even find his missing Pigtailed goddess when he found the fiend, no doubt the poor girl was being tortured by Ranma for his sick amusement right now!

Jumping to his feet, Kuno winced as he felt one of his legs twist under him, but regained his balance as he ran off towards the Kuno estate.

-CM-

Sometime, somewhere which is lost to both geography and history, Sailor Moon was holding the Ginzuishou, willing all of her power into it. Standing next to her, in a determined stance, her future daughter held her own copy of the powerful gem, the two glowing with equal intensity.

On the other side of this wall of glowing magic, the creature called "Wiseman" battered at the crystal's light. "I won't be defeated!" he roared, directing more and more of his dark crystal's energy against his opponents.

"You… You're wrong!" Sailor Moon yelled, her crystal's power increasing as her willpower did. As the evil force tried to draw even more strength from his own well of power, he tapped it out, hitting the end of his reserves.

"No!" Wiseman yelled, the white light of the crystal's energy washing over him, destroying his tainted soul a piece at a time.

As the light washed away, Wiseman had disappeared and Sailor Moon collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. Looking next to her, she saw Chibi-Usa, looking at her in relief before she lunged at her, the two meeting in a bear hug.

"We did it…" Sailor Moon whispered, happily hugging the little girl.

Unknown to the two rabbit girls, a small part of Wiseman's black energy had survived the onslaught of the silver crystal, and used the last of its power to return to the future, and to the only reserve of dark power that was left. Wiseman knew that he was defeated for now, but he would be back again, with his final strategy, and Crystal Tokyo WOULD fall!

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Party

Haruka looked at her boss in astonishment. "You want me to do what?" she asked, blinking rapidly and wondering if she'd heard right.

"I don't know why it's such a big deal," the man wondered, exasperated. "All I want you to do is come to the victory party tomorrow night if you win the race. You skipped the last one and the sponsors want to see our new number one racer."

"But I told you, I hate those things," Haruka protested, remembering the large parties that were usually rather boring, and where she had to make a "good impression" on the sponsors.

"Look. It's just this once," the older man said, pleading. "I've got a line on a really good sponsor for you and she's going to be at the party. Just trust me, okay?"

Haruka sighed resignedly. "Alright, alright. Anything special I have to do?"

The boss shrugged. "Not really. Hey, why don't you bring a girl along and make a date of it? In fact, that would probably make a better impression than you coming alone."

"Huh?" Haruka said in surprise, before she got an idea and a slow smile spread across her face. "Thanks boss… I think I will," she said, before leaving the room.

"I wonder what that smile was about?" Haruka's boss wondered, before going back to filling out paper work.

At around five thirty that night, Haruka knocked on Ranma's apartment door. "Hey Haruka," Ranma greeted her while opening it.

"Hey Ranma. I have a favour to ask you," Haruka said.

"And that is?" Ranma asked, knowing that he probably wouldn't like this.

"Will you go to a party with me tomorrow night?" Haruka said, bluntly.

Ranma's eyes widened. Was Haruka asking him out on a date? "Um… I guess so. Where is it?" he asked, blinking in surprise.

"Well, there's this post race party after every race, and I need to go this time. I thought having someone around to go with would make it more tolerable."

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "A post race party, but that means you'll be dressing as a guy, right? We can't go together."

Haruka pulled a bottle of water out from behind her back and smiled, as sweetly as her male appearance would allow, at him. "Sure we can!"

"What? No way!" Ranma proteszed, backing away from the bottle of water.

"Please?" Haruka asked, almost begging. "It's going to be unbearable without someone going with me and I HAVE to go. It'd be a really big favour."

Ranma looked contemplative for a moment before a Nabiki special smirk crossed his face. "Alright. I'll do it, on one condition."

"Great!" Haruka said, smiling happily and passing Ranma the bottle of water.

"You ain't gunna ask what the condition is?" Ranma asked, smirking.

"Nah. I'm fine with whatever you want if you go on this date with me," Haruka said, happily.

"Alright, I guess I'll go. When is it?" Ranma asked, having to restrain himself from giving a big evil grin at Haruka's last comment.

"Well, the race starts at four and the celebration is around seven. You may as well go to the race too, 'cuz I can get you in for free," Haruka explained, pulling a "Pass for One" card out of her pocket.

"Alright. I'll be there," Ranma decided, before closing his bedroom door and going back to his recently interrupted meal, sticking the card on top of his pack so he wouldn't forget about it.

-CM-

At the same time, in the front office of the Metro Centre, Nodoka was talking to a receptionist. "Oh, that cute maintenance man that started yesterday?" the girl said, blushing. "He went home about two hours ago."

"Oh…" Nodoka said, disappointed but also noticing how the girl drooled over her son. 'My son is SO manly!' she thought, before she mentally rebuked herself for doing it. Her son WASN'T really all that manly, even though he was rather attractive, but it didn't matter. She still wanted to see him.

Hearing the disappointment in the woman's voice, the receptionist spoke again. "Well, He'll be here tomorrow morning to set up for the big race, and you could ask Mr. Tenoh about him. I hear he's training him and that they live in the same building."

"Mr. Tenoh?" Nodoka asked, curiously. "Yeah. He's one of our motocross racers," the girl explained, pointing at a picture of Haruka standing next to a bike.

"Thank you," Nodoka said, before walking out of the front doors and towards her hotel. Only one more day, and she should be able to see her son again.

-CM-

The next morning, Ranma opened his eyes and yawned expansively before getting up and reaching for his pack in order to dig out some food for breakfast. Seeing the card on top of the pack, he grumbled as he realized what it was for. Putting it into his pocket, He got dressed and cooked a small bowl of rice for breakfast.

It was a good thing that he wasn't fighting people every day like he did in Nerima, or he would be starving himself with this little food. As it was, he didn't need to worry about his Chi reserves running out and he didn't have to eat nearly as much.

As he packed a special duffle bag for tonight, Ranma grumbled to himself and wondered how in the world he had been talked into THIS. Remembering Haruka's promise, a small smile spread across his face.

That morning looked rather a lot like an old bugs bunny cartoon. Ranma would go somewhere to do something, complete his task and leave just as Nodoka entered the area. One didn't manage to catch sight of the other all day, and there was a noticeable twitch in Nodoka's eye by the end of the day.

At about three forty five, Ranma slipped into the washroom near the front entrance and used the supplies in the gym bag that he had brought along. He had "gone girl" many times before, and was becoming rather good at quick changes.

About three minutes later, a short, busty redhead exited the men's bathroom, causing a nearby guy to trip and fall to the floor. Ranma grinned. Even if she didn't like guys hitting on her, a little bit of feminine pride had snuck into her as her time with the curse had increased and she couldn't help but get a bit of a jolt at that kind of reaction.

Slipping her card into the pass reader at the front entrance to the race track, Ranma walked in and looked around for a seat. Finding one, she sat in it and began to watch the race. It was an endurance run, about two hours long and on a very large portion of the track. The dirt track coiled like a snake in order to get that much road into such a small area, and Ranma began to understand why Haruka had such good reflexes as she took insanely tight turns at almost full speed.

On the other side of the arena, Nodoka watched as well. She wasn't really all that interested in motorbike racing, but she hadn't been able to get a lead on her son all day and this Mr. Tenoh person was her last hope. He was quite a good racer, at least by the looks of it. He was in first place and second was about twenty bike lengths behind him.

She had fallen asleep after the first half an hour of racing, but woke up as the crowd burst into applause. She blinked as she saw a three set of stands in the middle of the race area, Mr. Tenoh standing on the Central one, which was marked "FIRST" in bold lettering.

About five minutes later, Haruka walked out of the "Racers Only" area to see someone standing and waiting for her. "Great race, Haruka!" Ranma called, running up to her.

Haruka's eyes almost popped out of her skull as she caught sight of Ranma. She was wearing a green dress, earrings -probably clip on but she couldn't tell- in her ears and had her red hair falling down her back without a pigtail. She wasn't wearing any make-up, but really didn't need it.

"H… Hi Ranma," Haruka said, almost speechless.

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked innocently, noticing Haruka's hanging jaw.

"Nothing," Haruka quickly answered, shaking her head. "I just didn't expect you to look so… beautiful!"

Ranma smirked. "When I dress like a girl, I do it right, ne?"

Haruka just nodded dumbly, before doing something that surprised even herself. She walked forward, embraced Ranma and kissed her full on the lips. "Gmph!" was all Ranma could say, her eyes widening in surprise. She struggled for a second, but then began to co-operate.

"Hey Tenoh! Get a room!" someone yelled, causing Haruka and Ranma to break apart. They both flushed red as they saw one of Haruka's fellow racers giving her the victory sign.

'I can't believe I did that,' Haruka thought, looking sidelong at Ranma. 'I wonder what it would feel like with her as a guy? Bad Haruka!' she thought, trying to get those thoughts out of her mind.

'Why did she do that?' Ranma wondered, openly staring at Haruka. Bringing a hand up to her lips, she touched them softly. 'It felt really nice, though. The first kiss I've ever had where I was willing to kiss back.' A small, silly smile spread across her face. 'I wonder what it'll be like when I'm a guy?'

The thoughts of the two girls were interrupted by the sound of an older man clearing his throat. "Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to meet your girlfriend here," the man said, walking up to Haruka.

"Uh.. This is Ran-"

"-ko," Ranma interrupted, smoothly. "Nice to meet you."

"Hello Ranko-san. Are you related to our new maintenance man?" the boss asked, looking at her curiously.

"Yes. He's my brother," Ranma said, having decided on a permanent alias for her girl side. After all, Ranma's sister would be expected to know most of the stuff he knew, as well as be in places where he would.

"Well, I'm Mr. Shinyo, his boss. Nice to meet you," the man said, before turning to Haruka. "Quite a catch you got there, Tenoh."

Haruka blushed. "Th… Thank you, Sir."

Shinyo chuckled as he walked off. "Make sure to bring her to the party!" he called over his shoulder before leaving for the administrative offices.

The after-race locker room festivities had taken a long time and there was only an hour until the big party, so Haruka turned to Ranma. "Do you want to go out and eat or something before we go to the party?"

Ranma grinned happily. "Food, sure," she said, and the two headed for a nearby restaurant.

Down the hall from them, Nodoka stood, a look of shock on her face. The girl who she had seen kissing Tenoh san was her child, she was sure of that. Very few people had flaming red hair like that, and fewer still were that short and well built. Nodoka hadn't known that Ranma had really liked men. It had hit her right out of nowhere. Then again, with a curse like the one he had, it was a distinct possibility which she should have thought about.

She knew that she had no right to dictate what Ranma should do ever since he had gone Ronin, and that the Seppuku pledge was now a distant memory, but could she really tolerate seeing her child in a relationship with a man? Her thoughts confused, Nodoka staggered down the hall, wondering if she should just give up now and go find her family.

Things had just gotten so… confusing.

In the restaurant, Ranma was happily munching on a plate of Tako Sushi, Haruka across from her with some sort of fish that she couldn't identify. This was a very fancy restaurant, and Ranma couldn't identify most of the foods. She decided to keep with what she knew. Picking up another sushi with her chopstick and plopped it into her mouth, she chewed it slowly, actually enjoying its flavour. She had really enjoyed this particular part of being away from Nerima. The fact that her father wasn't always stealing her food and that she could enjoy it, that is.

"So what are we supposed ta do at this party?" Ranma asked, out of the blue.

"Just hang around and talk," Haruka explained. "It's supposed to be a place for race sponsors to meet the racers and see if they want anything to do with them. I have to go because I don't have any major sponsors yet."

"Um… Okay," Ranma said, blinking. She wasn't exactly very up on the business world, so let it pass. "I think we gotta go soon, though," she said, looking at the clock at the back of the restaurant.

"Yeah, you're right." Haruka said, the two of them getting up and Haruka leaving some money on the table to pay for the food. "The gentleman must pay the bill, right?" she said, grinning at Ranma.

Ranma tried to glare back, really she did, but she just ended up laughing. "C'mon," she said, grabbing Haruka and pulling her out of the restaurant.

-CM-

Later that night, Ranma stood in the middle of a large party hall, holding a drink of what looked like clear alcohol but was really water.

She -in girl form especially- couldn't hold her liquor very well as she'd learned the hard way and generally stayed away from the stuff. Looking around for something to do, she saw Haruka standing and talking to a green haired woman in a business suit. For a second she felt the stirrings of something that felt kind of like anger, but slightly different.

Squashing this strange and downright stupid feeling, Ranma walked over and got into range to hear the conversation the two were having.

"So you're saying that Meiou industries wants to sponsor me?" Haruka asked, a surprised look on her face.

"That's right," Setsuna said, taking a sip from her glass of Champaign. "We will send you a letter outlining our full terms some time tomorrow. We are very interested in you, Mr. Tenoh." For some reason, the woman had a touch of humour in her voice as she said the last two words.

"Hey Haruka, what's goin on?" Ranma asked, as she walked up to the two.

"Nothing much, Ranko," she said, using Ranma's girl-side's fake name. "I was just talking to this woman about something."

"Ah, you must be Mr. Tenoh's girlfriend," Setsuna said, the small thread of humour going all throughout this sentence. Ranma blushed slightly and nodded. Being called anyone's "girlfriend" would normally cause her to flatten the offender, but this was a special case. "Well, it was nice to meet you two." Setsuna said, walking into the crowd. Ranma could have sworn that her Chi signature just disappeared after she got out of their sight, but she dismissed it as unimportant.

Later that night, Ranma and Haruka were walking home, Ranma with a slightly angry look on her face and Haruka with an apologetic one. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't know he would do that," Haruka apologised, remembering back to one of her fellow racers groping Ranma's ass during the party.

Ranma looked over at Haruka and the anger disappeared. "I ain't angry at you. I'm angry that I couldn't get more distance." She explained, Remembering what she had done to the offender.

Haruka chuckled. "Where did you get that mallet, anyways?"

Ranma looked sheepish. "My Ex-Fiancée taught me the trick… by using it on me," she explained.

'Ex-Fiancée?' Haruka wondered, but just let it slide.

As the two went into the apartment, Haruka grabbed Ranma and kissed her again, as she had done when she had first left the racers only area.

"I'd better get back up to my apartment," Ranma decided, pulling away. "Tonight was kinda fun, but I think I wanna turn back to a guy."

Haruka sighed in mock disappointment. "All right. See you tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure," Ranma said, as she and Haruka headed upstairs.

As The two parted, not even Ranma's trained Chi senses noticed the fact that they were being watched. From the Gates of Time, Pluto smiled.

END!

Beta-read by Tribun.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: A long day

The next day, Ranma grumbled as he walked home from the metro centre. It had turned out that he wasn't needed today, as the place was closing down on Friday to get the race stuff taken out. Walking into the front lobby of his apartment building, he saw Haruka, her face covered with grease, walking into the elevator.

"Hold that, would ya?" he called, running for it. Haruka stuck out a hand, preventing the door from closing, and smiled as she saw Ranma coming.

"Hi Ranma. You're back early," she said as the pigtailed martial artist stepped into the elevator.

Ranma shrugged. "Got sent home early," he explained, turning and facing the door as Haruka pressed the button to go to their floor.

Haruka just nodded, and the two sat in silence until Ranma spoke up again. "Well, if we ain't doing anything else today, wanna spar or something?"

Haruka shrugged. "I guess that'd be alright. I have to change clothes first, though," she said, gesturing at the grease-stained set of cover-alls she was wearing. As the elevator arrived on their floor, the two walked off and Ranma stood next to Haruka's apartment door while she went inside.

A few minutes later Haruka slowly edged the door open, looking embarrassed for some reason. Ranma wondered why she looked so embarrassed, until he caught sight of her. She was wearing a white blouse and dress pants, very obviously feminine clothing, and she had forgone wrapping up her chest.

"Haruka?" Ranma asked, blinking.

"These were the last clothes I have, Okay? I have to do laundry some time," Haruka explained, glaring at Ranma as if to say "If you laugh, I will kill you."

"Hey, that's okay. You look… cute," Ranma said, smiling at Haruka's glare.

She stopped dead for a second. She looked "cute?" She didn't know whether that was a compliment or an insult, so she just dismissed it and the two walked to the elevator and took it to the first floor.

About fifteen minutes later Ranma and Haruka were standing in the middle of a park, getting ready to fight. Haruka made the first move, as Ranma almost always chose to wait out his opponents. She charged in with a brutal straight punch to Ranma's head, which he quickly dodged. Ranma came around with a sweep kick to her legs, but almost stopped half way through delivering it, his mind trying to stop him from fighting a girl for no reason.

He quickly countered with the fact that he was training her, but Haruka used his distraction and slowed reaction to twist out of the way, grabbing him by the foot and throwing him. Ranma was surprised as he found himself flying through the air, but quickly turned to land on his feet.

'This ain't any ordinary girl…' Ranma decided, coming back in to continue the fight.

Of course, without the slight flinch that had slowed him on his first attack, Ranma was fully capable of dancing around Haruka and delivering blows that she couldn't block, but he turned down his skill so that he didn't completely dominate her. After all, what was the fun in completely overpowering your opponent?

After about an hour of sparring, followed by about two hours of Ranma teaching Haruka basic Saotome School Kata, Ranma's stomach growled loudly.

"Man, I'm hungry," Ranma said, looking down at his rather vocal stomach.

"Me too, I guess," Haruka replied, looking at him.

"Wanna go to a restaurant or something to get something to eat?" Ranma asked, remembering a rumor he had heard about a new place opening in the Juuban shopping centre.

"I don't know…" Haruka hesitated, uncertain. She didn't really mind coming out to the park dressed to look like a girl, but going to a crowded restaurant? "I don't think I want to go like this," she said, gesturing at her body.

"Why not?" Ranma asked, looking confused.

"Well, I've been dressing as a guy for so long, dressing like a girl just feels kind of awkward, you know?" Haruka admitted, blushing a bit.

"I think I'm one of the very few guys who knows what you're talking about," Ranma said, before a glint appeared in his eye. "All right. I'm calling in my condition. I was gunna use it for training time, but I guess now's as good a time as any. You gotta go on a date with me, for lunch and the rest of the afternoon, and YOU'RE the girl."

Haruka's eyes widened. "Huh?" she asked, sputtering.

"C'mon. I did it for you yesterday. It's only fair, right?" Ranma said, reasonably.

Haruka opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find some way to object, but finally just sighed and threw up her hands. "Fine. Where to, Ranma?"

"Let's go!" Ranma said, starting to run at what he knew was Haruka's top speed.

"Get back here!" Haruka called, running after him.

-CM-

At around the same time in the Peking Duck, Mousse was sitting at the counter and staring out at the street in front of the shop's large windows. On the counter next to him, Cologne perched, relaxing. For some reason the Peking Duck seemed to mostly attract the after school crowd, and during the day was usually very slow for them. Because of this, They were usually pretty bored in the mornings.

It had been a good business week, a LOT of students coming by to eat Ramen here, and one girl in particular showing up every day. Her name was apparently Makoto and she kept staring at Mousse strangely. Something that worried him was that she hadn't shown up yesterday, and he wondered why. There was also a rumour of an Okonomiyaki restaurant which was going to start out nearby, but if the Cat Café could keep up with Ucchan's, what other place could offer them any challenge?

As the elder and her student waited for customers, they heard the sounds of someone opening the door of the Café. Turning to look, Mousse's eyes widened as he saw who stood in the doorway, a blonde haired girl standing behind him.

"Welcome to the Peking Duck!" Mousse said, automatically, as he stared in shock at Ranma.

"Mousse?" Ranma asked, blinking at the spectacled boy. "What're you doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing, sonnyboy," Cologne said, from her position next to Mousse.

"Gah! The old Ghoul!" Ranma yelled, only to be hit over the head by Cologne's staff.

"Do you know these people?" Haruka asked as she looked over Ranma's shoulder to see Mousse and Cologne.

"Yeah, old friends… I think," Ranma carefully said, glancing questioningly at Cologne.

She nodded. "Yes, Mousse and I have known Ranma there for quite a long time. As for what we are doing here, isn't it obvious? We're running a cafe."

Ranma shrugged and walked into the place. He looked around, seeing that there were a few tables scattered around, as well as a large counter with stools surrounding it in the middle of the room. "Well, if the food here's as good as it was at the Cat Café, you'll really like this place, Haruka," Ranma said, looking at Haruka, who had already taken a seat at the counter.

Cologne studied the girl who was sitting at the counter as Ranma slipped in next to her, and then she cackled. "How do you do it, sonny boy?" she asked, still cackling.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, looking at Cologne in confusion.

"First the Tendo girl, now a girl who has enough male Chi in her aura that she's either got a curse or she's a cross dresser," Cologne explained, smirking at Ranma.

Ranma blushed, and Haruka did as well when she figured out that the old woman had picked up her secret. "What does she mean "Male Chi?" Haruka asked, looking confused at Ranma.

"She means that you've got a lot of male life force," Ranma explained. "Chi studies ain't taught to students until way later in training then you are now, but I'll teach ya about it eventually."

"You are training the girl?" Cologne asked, her ancient eyebrow raising. "I thought going Ronin from your clan would forbid you from practicing it's style."

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, but can you honestly say I practice the pure Saotome school anymore? I mean, I've got your Amazon fighting style mixed in, not to mention moves that I made up myself. I just figured that it was so different from pop's version that it didn't really matter anymore."

Cologne nodded solemnly, before Mousse took Ranma and Haruka's orders. After he had served them, he spoke. "Ranma, I haven't had a good fight since you left Nerima. How about a spar some time? I don't want to get rusty."

Ranma blinked. Mousse, the blind berserker of Nerima, was ASKING for a spar? Shaking off this sense of unreality, Ranma nodded. "How about on Sunday?" he asked, looking over to Haruka. "I got Haruka's morning training in this morning, so I can fight you Sunday morning."

"Sounds good," Mousse said, picking up Ranma's now empty plate and slipping it into his subspace pocket.

After Haruka had finished her meal as well, the two said their goodbyes to the two Amazons and headed out to the city streets.

A little bit down the block, intending to come to the shopping district to take her mind off of her child, Nodoka saw her son, in male form, walking in the opposite direction with a blonde-haired person. For a second she thought that it was Mr. Tenoh, but when the person turned slightly to talk to Ranma, it was quite evident that it was female. It did, however, have the exact same face as the Motocross racer that she had seen kissing her son, daughter, whatever! the night before.

Nodoka was even more confused now. Was Tenoh san really a girl? That would make more sense than her son suddenly liking men, but why did she dress as a man? Maybe she was cursed to turn into a man, or more disturbing, he was cursed to turn into a woman? Deciding that she was a little too rattled to keep her equilibrium around her son today, Nodoka didn't decide to call after Ranma, and decided to wait to see him tomorrow.

Later that day, Ranma and Haruka walked out of a movie theatre, rubbing their eyes. They had been in the theatre for about two hours and the light did a good job of blinding them. "That was pretty good," Ranma said, smiling at Haruka.

"Yeah. Bruce Lee movies usually are." She said, grinning back. Both of them, of course, were action movie fans as far as they were fans of any type of movie, at least.

"Going on a date with a tomboy definitely has its advantages," Ranma said, half expecting an angry yell for his comment. Haruka just laughed.

-CM-

As Ranma and Haruka stood in front of the apartment building, Ranma asked, "So how did you like it?"

Haruka shrugged. "It'll take a bit of getting used to, I guess, but it was tolerable." Then she got a big grin. "You get to be the girl next time, got it?"

"You know how strange that comment would sound if anyone heard it?" Ranma asked, before laughing. "Alright. We'll take turns, okay?"

"Alright," Haruka decided and then a strange look came across her face. 'Well, I've come this far. I may as well try it,' she thought, before grabbing Ranma's face in her hands and pulling it forward, her being about the same height as his male form.

As Ranma was about to exclaim in surprise, Haruka kissed him right on the lips. The two stiffened for a moment, before tentatively continuing. A few seconds later, they broke apart, both wearing strange looks. Ranma's was a kind of happy stupefaction while Haruka's was surprise.

"That wasn't half bad…" she muttered, staring at Ranma. He just nodded slightly, dazed. Sighing, Haruka grabbed him and dragged him into the building.

"Huh?" Haruka asked, as she came into the main lobby of the apartment building. Letting go of Ranma's hand, she walked over to the mail boxes and looked in. "We both have a letter.." she explained, getting her key out and reading hers. Her eyes popped wide as she read it. "Ranma, I think you should get yours," she said, sounding slightly awed.

Snapping out of his slightly stupefied state, Ranma opened his own mail box and extracted the letter, reading it.

_To, Ranma (No last name.)_

_From, Infinity Academy admissions staff._

_Your admission to the high school program of Infinity Academy has been approved, pending your receipt of this letter. Your forms and records have placed you in the second year, in the industrial arts program of our high school system. We thank you for applying and hope that you have a pleasant experience at our school starting this year. Please note that due to your slightly low scores, it is recommended that you take a two month catch up program, but this is not necessary._

_During your enrolment in the school, you will be staying in an off campus house with a maximum of three other people._

_Special note: your application form was submitted by one "Setsuna Meiou," and you were given a special scholarship for your high school and college courses from "Meiou industries, LTD."_

Ranma lowered the letter, his mouth wide in shock. "Does yours say what mine does?" he asked, handing Haruka his letter.

She quickly scanned it. "Not exactly. Mine says that I need to go there in order to get the sponsorship from her company, but she'll pay for it."

"How the heck did she manage to do this? I mean, she didn't even hear my real name at the party last night, and there's no way she could have gotten all of this together in one day," Ranma wondered, taking back the letter and looking it over.

"I don't know," Haruka shrugged. "Do you want to do it?"

"I don't know. It would be a lot easier to get work if I had a college education, and it sounds like they're payin for it, but this sounds too good to be true," Ranma said, shaking his head.

"Well, I'm seriously thinking about it. I mean, that's where I originally wanted to go in the first place, and this is too good an offer to pass up," Haruka said, looking at her own letter.

The two walked into the elevator, many things on their minds, not the least of which was the letter, and the kiss that they had had in front of the building.

-CM-

Ranma laid on his futon, staring at the letter in his hands.

The contents were a lot to think about. He would be able to go back to school, an unpleasant ordeal that he knew he needed in later life, and would be paid right through until college. Also, the subject that he would be studying caught his interest. He didn't know why, but he had really liked his job on the construction site, and doing that for the rest of his life, along with his martial arts, didn't seem that bad.

The one thing that was holding him back was where this letter had come from. He had only met the woman who had signed and submitted his scholarship yesterday, and he had even given her a fake name. How had she found out it was him, and more importantly, why was she doing this? He supposed that he could understand her doing it for Haruka, after all having a person who's technically employed by you be educated is always a good thing, but him?

Beginning to get a headache, Ranma dropped the letter to the side of his bed and put his head on the pillow, deciding to sleep on it.

-CM-

One room over, Haruka was looking at her own letter and wondering exactly HOW the woman had managed to get it to her this fast.

She knew of Meiou industries, a large manufacturing company that was apparently run by a very reclusive woman who lived in a house around here, but she didn't think they were THAT powerful. Also, Ranma's comments troubled her. She hoped that he would decide to go if she did, as having him around would be… enjoyable.

Like Ranma before her, she put the letter on the table next to her considerably softer bed and fell asleep, deciding not to worry about it.

-CM-

The next day, Nodoka stood in front of a mirror in her small hotel room, looking herself over.

She was going to see her son today, no matter what happened. She had been foolish to wait this long. Straightening the kimono she wore, she put the bokken in its place and walked through the door. Something still bothered her about carrying only a bokuto, but she couldn't really do anything about it so she didn't bother to try.

Since she still couldn't go to Ranma's home, not knowing the address was a good way to stop that, she headed down to the metro centre again. She just hoped her son worked on Fridays.

Walking up to the front doors, Nodoka pushed on them… and found them locked. She almost screamed, but just resorted to banging on the glass. A few seconds later, the receptionist of a few days before came out and answered the doors. "Oh, it's that woman from before. Nodoka something?" The girl said, looking at her.

"Yes. I've come to see my son here, is this facility closed?" Nodoka asked, holding her bokken tightly in its bundle.

"Yes Ma'am. I'm afraid it is. Your son is inside today, but I am afraid I can't let you in."

"Why not?" Nodoka said, almost growling the words out.

"Well, it's the rules. No one's allowed in but the maintenance workers today. I'm sorry Ma'am," the girl said, looking down.

Nodoka was just about to yell at her that she needed to get in, when she realized that the girl was just doing her job and backed down. "Alright. Thank you," she said, turning away.

The girl saw the disappointment in Nodoka's posture as she left, and called out. "Ma'am? Why don't you try coming back around three this afternoon? That's when the maintenance people get off work."

"Thank you. I'll do that," Nodoka said, walking off to find something to occupy her time.

-CM-

Ukyo stood back from the store front, her hands on her hips. "How's that look, sugar?" she asked, looking over at Konatsu.

"It looks very nice, Ukyo-sama," Konatsu honestly answered, looking at the glass window with "Ucchan's" stenciled across it in fancy roman script. The place was a bit bigger than the restaurant in Nerima, a side effect of the amount of money that Ukyo had made there, and it had a much larger serving area.

"Alright. Let's get to work!" Ukyo said, marching into the building. She missed the few friends she had made in Nerima, and especially Ranma, but her orders were orders and she had to follow them. She just decided to make the best of it. After a short time of Ukyo and Konatsu rapidly setting the place up, she hung a large "OPEN for first day of business! First customer gets it free for life!" sign on the front window and sat down at the counter.

About five minutes later, Ukyo heard the front door open and looked over to see who her first customer was. Her eyes popped wide open as she saw the form of Nodoka Saotome walking in, wearing a formal kimono, as always.

"Mrs. Saotome?" Ukyo asked, dropping her battle spatula onto the large grill in front of her.

"Hello Ukyo-chan. I saw the sign and had to see if it was you," Nodoka said, walking over and sitting on a chair. "Can I get a small sea food okonomiyaki?"

"Right away m'am!" Ukyo said, getting the batter out. "So why are you here?" she asked, poring a bit of it onto the grill.

"I am looking for Ranma," Nodoka told her, "I have found out where he works, and I'm waiting until he gets off shift."

Ukyo dropped her spatula again, with a rather loud clang. "R… Ranma's here?" she asked, shaking slightly.

"Why, yes. What's wrong?" Nodoka asked, looking at Ukyo in confusion.

"Damn!" Ukyo said, slamming her hand down on the counter. "I was hoping that was just a rumour. Mrs. Saotome, DON'T tell me anything about where Ran-Chan is, and DON'T bring him around here." Her voice was trembling after that.

"Why would you want that? Aren't you and my son friends?" Nodoka asked, surprised.

Ukyo began to cry after that, and Konatsu explained. "Ukyo sama's father has told her that she must kill Ranma san. She's trying to appear as if she is doing what he asks while not really hurting Ranma San, but if she were to find out where he was then she would be forced by honour to attempt to take his life."

Nodoka stiffened. "What?" She asked, her hand going to her bokken hilt. "But Ranma is Ronin. Genma's dishonour no longer clings to him."

"My father doesn't care, Nodoka-san," Ukyo said, wiping tears from her eyes. "And if I don't do what he wants, he has the power to throw me out of the clan. I won't be able to run a restaurant ever again if I'm Ronin."

"I see.." Nodoka said, her hand tightening on the hilt of the Bokken again. 'I should see what I can do for the poor girl,' she thought, wondering what had happened to the Kuonji patriarch's belief in honour.

He had come to her home, seeking her husband and son at one time, but now he seemed to have become driven by the need to protect his own honour at the expense of everyone else's happiness. Nodoka's thoughts stopped right there. 'Protect his own honour at the expense of everyone's happiness…' she thought, her face going white. Just as she had.

"Mrs. Saotome, are you alright?" Ukyo said, snapping her fingers in front of Nodoka's face.

"I'm fine, Ukyo-chan," Nodoka said, moving to her feet slightly unsteadily. "And please do not call me Mrs. Saotome. I divorced Genma a few days ago."

Ukyo looked relieved. "Glad to hear it. That fat bastard doesn't deserve you."

Nodoka frowned. 'Maybe he does,' she thought, before leaving Ukyo's new restaurant. She needed to find her son, now more than ever, and apologise. It was funny how the problems of others sometimes gave your own problems a new perspective.

-CM-

Ranma cracked his back as he walked out of the Metro centre at three that afternoon. He had actually had some fun stuff to do that day, and was enjoying his work.

His good mood died a rather painful death as he saw someone he knew standing in front of the place. He felt an almost overwhelming mixture of emotions as he saw her. Happiness that she was there, anger at her for pulling her sword, fear that she'd pull it out again right there and ask him to commit seppuku again and sadness that she had turned on him in Nerima. To keep himself from just becoming an emotional wreck, he buried all of his emotions behind one of the thickest soul of ice shields he had ever used, and walked up to her.

"What do you want?" he asked.

Nodoka winced at the coldness in her son's voice. It was as if all emotion had been drained from it, and his eyes bore almost no life. She shivered from just being in close proximity to him. "I… I just wanted to talk to you," she said, quavering slightly.

"Can we do it here, or is it private?" Ranma asked, still coldly.

"I'd rather talk somewhere private," Nodoka said, still slightly shaken up but recovering her composure slowly. She never knew that her son could be like this. Akane had described the "Soul of Ice" to her many times, but Nodoka didn't know if Ranma had ever used it this strongly. Unknown to her, he had only ever done it once, and that was against Saffron.

Ranma wordlessly lead Nodoka down a few streets, until the two of them came to an apartment building. The blonde haired person who Nodoka had seen with her son yesterday waved at them, and Ranma waved back, his icy and unapproachable exterior fading for a second.

"Where're you going, Ranma?" the person asked, walking up to him.

"I'm goin to my apartment to talk to this woman," Ranma said, pointing at Nodoka.

"Who is she?" Haruka asked, looking the woman over.

"Nodoka Saotome," Ranma said, flatly, before leading the older woman into the apartment building.

'Where have I heard that name before?' Haruka thought, staring after the two. Dismissing it, she went back to her previous activity, getting her bike out of the garage so that she could race it.

Nodoka looked around as Ranma lead her into a small apartment and offered her a chair. "Now, what do you want to talk about?" he asked, sitting on the bed across from the single chair, which he had only bought a couple of days ago.

"Ranma… I…" Nodoka started, almost losing her nerve. "I'm sorry."

Ranma's face actually showed a look of surprise and hope for a second, before he buried it. "Sorry about what?" he asked, keeping the hope he now felt out of his expression.

When he had seen the look on his mother's face when he left the Tendo place, Ranma had thought that she would never give up on her rather strange view of honour, and had resigned himself to never seeing or speaking to her again. Maybe now, he would have a second chance with her.

"I'm sorry I let Genma take you away on that trip, I'm sorry you were forced to hide from me for months and… I'm sorry that I put my personal honour above my family's happiness." Nodoka said, beginning to cry. "I just… It was all I had for so long and I… I…" she broke down into full tears this time, and Ranma had to resist the urge to get up and comfort her. After she had regained her composure, she looked up. "Can you forgive me, my son?" She asked, hopefully.

Ranma thought for a moment. The apology had sounded heartfelt, but how could he know that she wouldn't just start up the same stuff she had done before if he forgave her. Then, an idea came to him, and he decided to use it. "No."

Nodoka looked shocked. "N… No?" She asked, her eyes widening.

"I can't forgive a mother who'd willingly threaten to cut her own child's head off because he wasn't "Manly" enough… But I wouldn't mind having aunty Nodoka around again."

It took Nodoka a second or two to process what Ranma had said, and then her head shot up, a mixture of shock, happiness and disbelief on it. "Really?" She asked.

Ranma smiled. "Yeah. No problem, Aunty Nodoka. Joining your family again would just start all of the crap all over again anyways, but I don't really want to just completely ignore you."

"Thank you Ranma. Thank you so much," Nodoka said, coming out of her chair and hugging her former son in a vice like glomp.

"Can't breath… need air…" Ranma choked, his face turning blue.

Nodoka laughed as she let go of him. Then, she looked around the apartment. "It's really too bad you've got such a small apartment, Ranma," she said.

"Huh? Why?" Ranma asked, looking at her in confusion.

"Well, I don't really have enough money to stay in a hotel for more than the next few days, and Tendo-san kicked me out of the Dojo. It would have been nice if I could have killed two birds with one stone, and stayed with you," Nodoka said.

Ranma looked contemplative for a few minutes, before catching sight of a piece of paper that was poking out from next to his bed. Picking it up, he began to read and a small smile spread across his face. "I think I have an idea," he said, slowly.

-CM-

At the Gates of Time, Pluto boggled. She had feared that she would have to do something to get Ranma to go to the school and move in with Haruka, but somehow the chaos in his life always seemed to guide him into doing things that would be beneficial to him.

She wondered if there was some god of chaos smiling down upon him or something.

-CM-

Toltiir sneezed and jetted off his perch on his scrying bowl, he shook his head and jumped back up to resume watching his favourite toy called Ranma Saotome.

-CM-

Shaking her head in disbelief, she dispelled the image from the gates and teleported into a rather large house. It was a definite change from the small apartment she normally lived in, and with Nodoka around she would have to be careful about where to teleport, but the place was nice.

-CM-

Somewhere in Juuban, Tatewaki Kuno walked down the street, bokken in hand. He was going to find the Foul Sorcerer Saotome and the pigtailed girl, and he would vanquish the fiend, sending him to the deepest levels of hell. Striking a heroic pose, Kuno heard the sounds of some people fighting in the distance.

"Ah, that must be the fiend now!" he realized, running towards the fight. Kuno stopped in shocked aw when he saw what was going on. There were five lovely girls, battling some sort of large demon.

"I shall banish the demon to the depths of the hell from which it came!" Kuno yelled, charging at the monstrosity.

"Huh? What's that idiot doing?" Sailor Mars asked, seeing a sword wielding kendoist charging at a Youma.

"I don't know," Mercury added, her visor over her eyes and scanning the strange boy. "From what I'm getting on my visor, he is mentally unstable."

"Oh no! We have to help the poor guy!" Sailor Moon said, worried.

"Right!" The other senshi said, beginning their attacks.

Just before they fired, the kendoist got close enough to the monster to slash it, causing it to turn at the barely felt tap and pick Kuno up by his shirt collar. Draining some of his energy, it threw him into a wall. A few seconds later the Senshi's attacks obliterated it.

"I HATE it when demons just appear," Moon complained as she glared at the spot where the monster had been. "I mean, we just defeated the enemy and this random Youma shows up."

Mars nodded in agreement. Even without a great energy drain scheme going on, Juuban seemed to be demon central, having at least one every two weeks.

"Shouldn't we check on that guy?" Venus asked, pointing at the rubble of the wall where Kuno had been thrown.

"I guess so," Moon said, walking over and using her Senshi strength to remove some of the stone.

As Kuno awoke, he saw a vision of loveliness staring down at him. She had bright blue eyes, as well as the most peculiar style of hair. It looked like a double set of pigtails with balls on top. 'She's so beautiful,' Kuno thought, sitting up in the rubble and too delusional to realize that he was very badly hurt. Taking the girl's hands, he clasped them with his own. "Tell me flower, what is your name?"

"I'm Sailor Moon." Usagi said, wondering why the guy had taken her hands. It would have seemed romantic if he didn't have that insane glint in his eyes.

"Well my fair maiden, Sailor Moon. My name is Tatewaki Kuno, the blue thunder of Furinkan high, and I would date with you!"

"Huh?" all five Inner Senshi asked, blinking slowly

"Yes! I challenge you to a duel! If I defeat you, I may date you!" Kuno yelled, striking another pose.

"Sailor Moon blinked slowly as Kuno charged at her. The other inners, seeing their princess threatened, went into instant action. "Supreme Thunder!" Jupiter yelled, snagging Kuno.

"Burning Mandala!" Mars yelled, hitting Kuno as he flew into the air from Jupiter's blast.

"I fight… ON!" Kuno yelled, as he soared into the sky, fading into a pin prick on the horizon.

"That was weird," Sailor Moon said, before the Senshi shrugged it off and walked away.

A little while later, Kuno was laying in a trash bin, muttering to himself. "The pigtailed girl, Akane Tendo or the meatball princess. The pigtailed girl, Akane Tendo or the meatball princess."

We will leave this sad scene, knowing that Kuno had found yet another girl to obsess about.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Decision.

Haruka poked her head out from under her bike as she heard the sound of the front door to the building opening, noticing that the formally dressed woman who had entered with Ranma was coming out, seeming a good deal happier than she had when she had entered.

The blond re-entered the maze of components of her bike that littered the ground. Sometimes, she really missed the maintenance team that she had had while living with her parents. As it was, she had to do near constant small repairs on the bike, but dodging the bullet of marriage was worth it.

As she continued to work, she finally noticed that there was something casting a shadow over her work area. Curiously, she poked her head back out, nearly hitting it against the leg of the formally dressed woman, who was staring down at her intently.

"Um… can I help you?" she asked, uncertainly.

Blushing slightly, Nodoka, formerly of the Saotome clan, finally had to deny or confirm one of her worries, as well as settle her curiosity. Trying to pick diplomatic words to ask her question, she finally realized that there wasn't any particularly nice way of saying it and asked "I apologize for asking this, but are you a man or a woman?"

Haruka almost snickered. Truthfully, she had had very few people actually ask her this question, as she was usually good enough to fool people into thinking she was a male on a first, or even thorough, look over. "And why do you want to know?" she finally decided to ask, hoping that she could find out a bit about the mysterious woman.

"I am Ranma's… aunt," Nodoka said, her face breaking into a smile that was a mixture of happiness and regret. "I just wanted to know at least that about the person he is apparently dating."

Haruka almost laughed again. This was the weirdest version of the 'what are your intentions…' question she'd ever gotten. Finally, she decided to answer truthfully. "I'm a girl, but I'd ask you not to tell anyone that. It'd make it pretty hard for me to participate in any races."

Her impulse to laugh grew harder to control as she saw Nodoka's expression of relief at her words. 'I wonder what she'd think if I told her that I originally wanted to go out with Ranma's girl form?' she thought, but decided not to say this aloud.

She was about to ask a few questions of her own when she noticed that the woman was hurrying away. She contemplated calling after her, but decided that she would just ask Ranma what had gone on later. She had gotten a few answers already, as a member of his old family showing up would be a good reason for how he had been acting when he had first come home, and apparently their meeting had gone well enough.

-CM-

Nodoka left the grounds of Ranma's apartment building, a small smile on her face. While it was true that she didn't exactly have her son back, she could still see and talk to him, and it was evident that he still cared about her. Maybe the new fact that she could never openly claim Ranma as her son was the penance she had had to pay for the many mistakes she and Genma had made in raising the boy.

Another thing that was raising her spirits was that the person she had seen Ranma so closely associating with over the past week was, in fact, a female. Even if he was no longer her son, she wasn't sure if she could take the thought of him and another man doing… she shuddered. That Haruka though, she was so… unfeminine. Nodoka would have to do something in order to fix that problem, and then the girl would be perfect for her so… for Ranma.

As she headed back to her hotel, for one of the last few nights there, she couldn't help but put a bit of a spring into her step. Maybe her life could be rebuilt after the destruction that Genma, and even she herself, had brought upon it.

-CM-

In Nerima, Kasumi Tendo looked over the contents of the suitcase she had packed. It seemed that Nabiki was actually capable of squeezing money out of Tatewaki Kuno much more quickly than she had expected, the younger Tendo had said something about telling the blue thunder where his foul sorcerer was and Kasumi really hadn't wanted to know anymore.

So here she was, packing for her first extended trip away from the Tendo Dojo since her mother had died. She was slightly worried about the house, but Nabiki had promised to take care of it, and so had Akane.

Snapping the latches on her suitcase closed, Kasumi hefted it. It was heavy, but not overly so, which was a good thing since she wouldn't have anyone to help her carry it. Nabiki wasn't any stronger than she was, and had warned her not to take Akane to help her, for some reason. She briefly wondered why Nabiki wouldn't want Akane going to Juuban, but dismissed it as she opened the door to her bedroom and walked downstairs.

In the living room, her father was wailing about his baby girl leaving home and the worthless panda was trying to comfort him from his static position near the Shogi board. With what, on other people, would have been a full-fledged look of disgust, Kasumi turned to the door and saw her sisters standing there and waiting for her.

"So…" Akane said, sniffing. "You're really going?"

Kasumi nodded. "I'm sorry Akane. Don't worry, I'll come back all the time, I promise," she said, trying to cheer her younger sister up.

"I know…" Akane said, "I'll just… I'll miss you, Kasumi." With that, the youngest Tendo ran forward, and was enfolded in her older sister's arms, Kasumi rubbing her back soothingly.

Nabiki, behind Akane, smirked. "I'm not into all those dramatic tearjerker scenes," she drawled. "I'll miss you, sis. Make sure to call often."

"I will," Kasumi promised, disengaging herself from Akane and hefting her bag. "Is the tuition money in my account, Nabiki?"

Nabiki nodded. "You'll need to take a part time job, but I got you a nice deal on an apartment, and I'll send what I can whenever I can."

"Thank you, Nabiki, Akane…" Kasumi said, a few tears gathering in her own eyes.

"I'll take care of the house for you, okay Kasumi?" Akane said, trying to look cheerful. "I'll do all the cooking and cleaning and everything!"

Kasumi nodded, but a small part of her mind speculated as to how long the place would be standing with Akane taking care of it. She knew it was a mean thought, and that her sister truly tried her best, but sometimes Akane's capacity for botching even the simplest of household tasks stretched even her self-control. Pulling her mind away from that, Kasumi left the Tendo house, turning at the gate to wave to her sisters and give them a smile.

Akane and Nabiki both waved back, trying to muster up grins in response, before their sister turned again and walked down the street towards the subway station.

-CM-

It was later that night, when Ranma knocked tentatively at Haruka's apartment door. "Come in!" the blond called, reclining on her bed in a tank top and her underwear.

The door creaked open, and Ranma entered the single room apartment, quickly turning bright red and whirling around to face the door. "H… Haruka?" he squeaked, surprised.

This time, the blond did let herself laugh. She rarely ever tried to embarrass guys, as she was normally gunning for other girls and casual flirting worked better in that regard, but the look on Ranma's face before he had turned around was priceless.

"That wasn't funny!" the pigtailed martial artist complained, although he didn't sound particularly angry.

"Aw, c'mon Ranma. It's nothing you haven't seen in a mirror, right?" Haruka teased, as she sat up on the bed, letting her feet settle to the floor.

"Promise you aren't gunna slap me?" Ranma asked, still turned around.

"I won't slap you," Haruka promised, solemnly, causing the boy to turn around, briefly looking her over before he slumped into a chair near the bed.

Although she had the same habit of wearing tank tops to bed that he did, she wore the correct female undergarments underneath… not that he was looking there, of course not, no way…"So, when do I get the same show? Should I go get some cold water?" she continued, smiling cheekily.

Ranma just glared, all thoughts of embarrassment, at least those caused by her lightly clothed state, forgotten. Letting up on the glare, he shook his head. "Aw, and here I came ta tell you somethin really important, too."

Haruka leaned forward, interested. "Really? What is it?" she asked, curiously.

"I dunno, you wanna know?" Ranma asked, smirking.

"Yes, I want to know." Haruka returned, slightly annoyed.

"Well, I decided I was gunna go to that school. Y'know, that one we got the invitation for yesterday?" Ranma told her tentatively.

Haruka looked surprised. From the way he had reacted when the two had first received their invitations, she had expected him to hesitate for a while before agreeing, or maybe even refusing the offer, even if it was a good one. Shunting away her feelings of surprise, she grinned.

"That's great, Ranma!" she said, and meant it. "So what made you decide to do it so quickly?"

Ranma looked uncomfortable. "Well, you know that woman who came here today?"

"Yeah… she said she was your aunt," Haruka said, nodding.

"Well, she's sorta in the same boat I am, but she's not used to workin or anything. She was taken care of by a special account her parents set up, or somethin." At this point, he started to look nervous. "So I sorta figured that if I took the offer, we could put her up in one of the rooms of the place we're goin to…?"

Haruka contemplated this for a few moments. True, it was a strange reason to accept, but if a member of her family was in trouble she supposed she'd probably do the same thing. She assumed 'in the same boat' meant that this Nodoka person had been cast out of the same clan as Ranma and she distantly wondered what the clan head was thinking.

As she noticed that Ranma was fidgeting nervously in the chair across from her, she realized that she'd been thinking for too long, and also wondered why her opinion of his actions meant so much to him. "Sure, that's fine with me, if Meiou-san and the school agree."

Ranma smiled widely. "Thanks, Haruka. I sorta told her I had a place for her ta stay without thinking that you'd be livin there too," he admitted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "So I guess I'll call 'em up and accept tomorrow, then." He turned to leave, but then turned back as he opened the door. "Thanks a lot, Haruka-chan," he said, grinning.

The blond tomboy sputtered at the last comment, before grabbing a pillow and tossing it at the pigtailed martial artist. "Don't call me that!" she complained, laughing.

Ranma grinned, catching the soft projectile and whipping it back before dodging out of the door and closing it behind him. He had stumbled upon that little crack in Haruka's composure during their sparring session the day before, when he'd innocently called her that while asking if she was alright after getting thrown into a tree. It seemed that it irritated her about as much as it did him, and she was a lot more willing to show it.

Chuckling, he headed down the hall to his own apartment, wondering what would happen when he registered for school the next day. 'I can't believe I'm throwing myself back into that nightmare…' was his final thought, as he entered his apartment and flopped down on his bed.

-CM-

Sometimes Happosai, grand master of the Anything Goes school, thought that the gods were still angry at him for that little incident with the Shinto priestess last century. He had searched all through the city of Tokyo, until he had finally located Ranma down to a single district. Then he had gone on one, little panty raid and everything had gone wrong.

Sure, he had wanted to find the panties of one of those magical girls… but how was he supposed to know that the girls, and therefore their auras, were so pumped full of elemental magic that when he tried to draw energy from a pair of their panties that he had gotten from somewhere -he still wasn't sure what line had held them- he would blow himself half way to hell?

As he lay, still trying to recover from the magical blast that he had been hit with, while completely defenseless, Happosai heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him. Too tired and injured to bother with looking to see who was coming, the old man just waited.

Suddenly, a voice rang out. "What the… Grandfather Hino, come quick! there's some sort of demon behind the shrine!"

Happosai grimaced as another sound came to him, that of two other pairs of feet coming towards him, but his expression turned to one of delight when he sensed the fiery Chi of a young lady coming near, along with the much less interesting, and less powerful, Chi of the shrine priest.

"Hotcha!" Happi yelled, springing to his feet, his many injuries seeming not to matter as he jumped at the girl's chest. The old priest flung a demon ward at him, but it wasn't what got him. No, what got Happosai was that this sweet young girl was yet another of those mini-skirted magical girls, obviously in a civilian disguise, and fire hurt a lot more than that bright light he'd been hit with last time.

As Rei Hino, her grandfather and Yuuichiro watched, the little demon that the latter had found in the back of the shrine grounds streaked into the air on a column of fire. "What… was that?" The miko asked, looking down at the portion of her chest where the thing had briefly latched on.

While she could understand the fire -as it was the very essence of Sailor Mars- she didn't understand how she'd done that.

Her grandfather just shrugged and shook his head. He had no clue, although the thing did look mildly familiar.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Three Sides of a Coin?

Kasumi Tendo smiled as she looked out of the window of her new apartment at the shopping area of the Juuban district. She had gotten here from Nerima last night, and had only taken a few minutes to find the place.

It was kind of hard to miss, considering that there was a huge golden crown painted on the sign out front of the building. Nabiki, apparently, had managed to take care of her older sister's housing and work at the same time, as Kasumi was living in a small guest room in the Furuhata residence, above their family owned restaurant and game arcade, the Crown. She had only met the elder two Furuhatas last night, and not talked to them for very long, but they seemed like a very nice family.

After quickly getting dressed in a knee length blue skirt and pink blouse, for once without her traditional apron, the eldest Tendo sister left her room and walked down to the second floor of the building, which contained the restaurant, and went to the kitchen in the back.

According to what Mr. Furuhata had told her the night before, she was to be the place's new part time chef, as they had decided to expand from simple desserts and other treats into other types of food in order to compete with two new places that had opened nearby recently.

Smiling, the cheerful girl quickly rummaged around the kitchen, pulling various items from the shelves and refrigerator in order to make herself, and probably her host family, some breakfast. True, she missed her sisters, but being away from home wasn't really as scary as she had once thought, especially with such a familiar job.

-CM-

As Mousse ran a damp cloth across the tables in the serving area of the Peking Duck in order to prepare it for opening, he whistled happily. Life as the owner of a Café was far better than that as the lowest paid and least respected waiter, he had quickly discovered. Plus, Cologne had resumed the training that she had stopped giving him originally when he had begun chasing Shampoo.

To top it all off, he had even managed to track down the only sparring partner who was worth anything that he'd found in the past few years, and they were going to have a match tomorrow.

Yes, things were going pretty well for the blind master of hidden weapons, until he walked to the back door of the Café to drop a bag of garbage outside, only to see a lump on the ground. Dropping the bag into the can, he approached the lump and examined it. It was small, and covered in dark purple cloth. Tentatively, he poked it with one foot, causing it to roll over and display more fully what it was.

Mousse screamed.

-CM-

Later that day, Ranma and Haruka looked nervously at the front entrance of a smallish house near the edge of the Juuban district.

"Is this the place?" Ranma asked, curiously.

Haruka consulted a card that she'd tucked into the breast pocket of the white business shirt she was wearing, above the black dress pants and shoes. Ranma wasn't looking nearly as formal, simply dressed in one of his traditional Red Chinese shirt and black pants combos, Mostly because the only formal wear he had was for his female form anyways.

At the moment the Martial artist and the cross-dresser were headed for a meeting with Setsuna Meiou, the head of Meiou industries, that had been arranged when Haruka had called to accept the invitation to Infinity Academy this morning. It had seemed strange that the head of a multi-national corporation would have time free in her schedule on the same day when they had called, and even stranger that she would request the meeting at her own house, but Ranma had just shrugged this off when Haruka had commented on it.

"Looks like the right address," Haruka said, interrupting Ranma's train of thought before heading for the door to the house.

Knocking on the door, it was answered a few minutes later by Ms. Meiou, dressed in a casual pair of slacks and a blouse. She looked the same as she had during the party a few days before, aside from the fact that her hair was let down from the ball it had been gathered in at the back, and flowed down naturally now.

"Hello Haruka, Ranma," she said, in a quiet and calm voice, before backing away from the doorway. "Please come in."

The two both nodded, slipping off their shoes in the doorway before entering the house. A small living room was set directly off from the front entrance and Setsuna quickly guided them there, before sitting in a comfortable looking chair on one side of the room. Ranma and Haruka quickly took places on a couch across from her, while looking around the room.

Haruka, who had a great deal more social education than Ranma, spoke first. "Nice place," she said as an attempted conversation opener after a few minutes of slightly uncomfortable silence.

Setsuna smiled. "I'm glad to hear you like it, as this will be where you and Ranma-san will be staying during your school years, if you accept the scholarship from Meiou Industries, at least."

"Here?" Ranma asked, confused. "I thought this was your house."

"It is," Setsuna said, her smile beginning to look a little like one of Nabiki's smirks. "I'll be living here as well, along with a fourth person who we all select."

The smirk put Ranma a little bit on edge, but Haruka beat him to the next question. "Forgive me for sounding a little rude," she said, drawing on every lesson her parents had once taught her about manners, even though they were pretty rusty by this point. "…but why would the manager of a large business like Meiou Industries suddenly decide to take on three other people as boarders?"

Setsuna actually laughed at that. "Believe it or not, I'm not particularly powerful with Meiou industries. The company is mostly run by a board of stockholders. Honestly, my main job is actually to be a figurehead, and I do some volunteer work as a councilor at a Junior High school near here," she explained, the small laugh at the beginning of the statement being swallowed up into a look of calm.

"A… school councilor?" Haruka asked, confused. "Then how…"

"I make a lot of money from holding stock in the company," Setsuna said, not mentioning that she'd been saving it for a few hundred years by this point. "And I found you and Ranma to be interesting investments."

Suddenly, a light seemed to go off in Ranma's head. "Hey wait, didn't I see you in a bar once?" he asked, before realizing that he'd just said something kind of stupid and trying to sink into the couch. The glare Haruka was giving him could have been helping him in that regard.

Setsuna laughed again, and this time it was longer. "I believe I vaguely remember that occasion," she said before continuing, "But you do realize that if I hadn't already made enquiries into you and 'Ranko' with Nabiki Tendo, you could have just given me many questions?"

'Well, that explains how she knew who I was when she only met my girl side at the party…' Ranma thought, looking distinctly embarrassed.

After that discussion, the three eventually got down to actual discussion of the living arrangements in the house, and various aspects of Ranma and Haruka's entrance into Infinity Academy, until several hours later, when the two teenagers left the house.

-CM-

As Ranma and Haruka walked back towards their soon to be former apartment building, Ranma spoke up. "Well, she seemed nice enough," he said, referring to Setsuna.

"Yeah, but a bit strange, don't you think?" Haruka asked, thinking of the woman's rather strange reasoning for offering them all that she had. It seemed too good to be true, but it all checked out. She had checked to make sure before she and Ranma had met with Setsuna.

Ranma shrugged. "Well, she hasn't tried to kill me yet, and she said it would be all right if Nodoka moved in, so I'll take a bit of weirdness."

"Hasn't tried to kill you?" Haruka asked, looking at her pigtailed companion strangely.

"Oh yeah, that's happened a lot. I mean, Mousse was trying to kill me the first time he saw me, too. And Ryoga and…" he seemed to trail off as he saw Haruka's mouth gaping open. "Is there somethin wrong?"

The blonde shook her head. Ranma had made the occasional oblique reference to his life before coming to the Minato ward being pretty insane, but still… 'It's best not to think about it,' she decided, wanting to spare herself from the insanity.

-CM-

Late Sunday morning, Ranma placed a large cardboard box on the stairs of Setsuna's house. It was Haruka's, which had been moved over on her bike. His own pack and other meager belongings had been roof-hopped over earlier, before Haruka had woken up. She seemed to like sleeping in on Sundays way too much. "Is that the last of it?" he asked, looking over at the blonde.

"Yeah, that's all of it," she confirmed, before she nervously looked back to the street, where a really frazzled looking Nodoka stood, clutching at her bokken. "But what are we going to do about your aunt?"

Ranma looked at Nodoka in puzzlement. "Why's she standing like that, anyways?"

Haruka shrugged. "I don't know. All I did was give her a ride here from her hotel on my bike," she said, trying to look innocent.

Ranma, who'd used that exact same poorly crafted expression of innocence himself, looked at her sharply. "How fast did you drive?" he asked, remembering Haruka's performance in the one race that he had seen, on the same bike she had used to transport Nodoka.

The blonde just fidgeted absently, as Setsuna exited the house, and took a speculative look at Nodoka. Seeming to instantly grasp the problem, she walked over to the apparently older woman and took her by the arm. "Come on inside, Nodoka-san. I've got some stuff in there that should calm you down."

Nodoka nodded numbly, before following Setsuna into the house, her bokken still clutched in bone white fingers. Ranma looked between the two, feeling a bit worried for his former mother, but shrugged it off. Setsuna was some sort of councilor, so he figured that she knew what she was doing.

"Let's get this stuff inside. I promised Mousse a sparring session today, remember?" he asked, picking the box back up.

"Oh yeah," Haruka said, grabbing another box that she'd carried in. "Any chance I can watch?"

"How good are you at ducking?" Ranma said, deadpan.

Haruka laughed nervously, but continued. "Come on, Ranma. I've never seen you fight all out before. It'll be fun," she said, persuasively.

Ranma shrugged. "Sure, I guess. I'll just have ta get Cologne to stand near you to deflect anything dangerous. Mousse likes throwing blades around."

Setting his box down in Haruka's room, he looked around. The whole place was fully furnished, which was a good thing since neither he nor Haruka had enough money to pay for the furnishings and Haruka's room seemed to have been laid out especially for her. Even the sheets on her bed were bright yellow, apparently her favorite color. It was actually kinda spooky how well Setsuna had pegged her and Ranma's preferences, including the set of training equipment in the backyard of the house.

"Well, if that's everything, let's go," Ranma said, turning to Haruka's bedroom door before getting a slightly evil look on his face. "I know, let's go the fast way!"

'This should teach her for scarin the crap outta mom,' he thought, scooping Haruka up, opening her window and jumping out.

"This is the second floor, you idiot!" Haruka shrieked, in an embarrassingly high voice, as she plummeted to the ground with her eyes closed, anticipating intense pain. To her surprise, Ranma's feet touched the ground and abruptly sprang off of it, only causing her a slight jolt. Opening her eyes again, she saw that she and Ranma were flying through the air, straight onto the roof of the nearest house. "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded, as he hit the next roof, his feet gliding silently across the top ridge.

"You'd better hold on tighter or I could drop ya," Ranma said, deliberately slackening his grip until Haruka flung her arms around his neck. Somehow, that felt as nice as when Akane had done the same thing the few times he had taken her hopping across the rooftops.

As the martial artist continued moving at high speed towards Juuban's shopping district, Haruka began to relax slightly. After the overwhelming terror of being practically thrown out a window, the ride had actually been pretty pleasant, and even somehow fun. She found herself now anticipating every time Ranma's legs would coil beneath them, launching them over a gap between two houses, or up onto a taller building in their path. In a dark corner of her mind, she even acknowledged that being held in his arms was a very nice sensation.

Feeling his passenger relax, Ranma grinned. "Wanna go faster?" he asked, looking down at the blonde in his arms.

Almost against her will, Haruka found her head nodding, and then Ranma was running and jumping at double the speed he had been, the wind whipping her short cut hair into a frenzy and she found herself laughing her head off with the sheer exhilaration of the flight.

When Ranma stopped in front of the Peking Duck, Haruka was almost reluctant to get out of his arms, however she immediately did so. Also, protocol had to be met. "You do realize I'll have to pay you back for that at some point, right Ranma?" she asked, evenly.

He grinned nervously, scratching the back of his head. "We should go in and see Mousse," he decided, trying to change the subject. Haruka decided to let him and the two walked into the building to see it empty as before, only this time with a closed sign over the door that Ranma promptly ignored.

"Hey, Ranma," Mousse said, from his position in the main room, looking slightly pale. As Haruka walked in, the hidden weapons master squinted at her. "Who's that?"

"It's Haruka," Ranma said, looking at Mousse strangely. "You remember, the person I brought in when I first came here?"

"Oh, I didn't recognize you," Mousse said, distantly, shooting a glance at the back room of the Café.

"Mousse, is there somethin wrong?" Ranma asked, looking with some concern at the blind boy.

"You should probably go in back and talk to Cologne," Mousse said, before leading the two into the back room that he had been looking at earlier. Ranma looked at Haruka nervously before the two followed, entering what appeared to be the former Amazon elder's bedroom, where Cologne was standing over a bed.

"Hey ol' ghoul, what's wrong with…" Ranma stopped, as he saw what lay in the bed. "Whoa, what happened to him?" he continued, looking at the battered, beaten, bruised and burnt form of the anything goes grandmaster Happosai.

Curious, Haruka looked over Ranma's shoulder to see the shriveled old man and shook her head. "That's a person?" she asked, before Cologne's staff smacked into the top of her head.

"Yes that's a person… barely," the old woman muttered, frowning worriedly.

"What. Is there somethin wrong with the old freak? Just looks like he got beaten up a bit worse by some girl, is all," Ranma said, trying to be casual. He would never admit worry for what was occasionally the bane of his existence, but he didn't want to see Happosai severely hurt. In Nebraska, maybe, but not severely hurt.

Cologne sighed. "I don't know. It's as if the fool tried to absorb raw magic with his Chi absorption technique. Half his chi paths are burnt out," she explained, frowning thoughtfully. "There are only two things that can do this kind of damage to someone's Chi flow; youki and magic, and I can't sense any demonic energy around him. Well, any more than usual."

At this point Haruka was lost, just standing behind Ranma and trying not to be noticed, however the pigtailed martial artist was thinking something over. "Well, there are some sorta weird demons runnin around this district. Maybe one of them got him?"

Cologne gave Ranma a sharp glance. "What kind of demons?" she asked, calmly.

"I dunno. All I can say is that they eat Chi for breakfast and normal martial arts doesn't stand a chance. Mousse could do some damage, or Ukyo's big spatula, but the things suck any chi out of strikes ya hit 'em with," Ranma told her, remembering the Youma that had drilled him through a wall.

"I will have to look into this while I care for Happi," Cologne said, turning back to the bedridden martial arts master. "For now I suggest that you do not worry about this, and just leave the fighting to the group of magic users who populate this district."

"Magic users?" Ranma asked, confused.

"I think she means the Senshi," Haruka said, sighing as Ranma looked at her blankly. "You know, short skirted defenders of love and justice, magical attacks and stupid speeches?" She smiled as she thought of a news clip she had seen of a Senshi battle a few days ago. Yet another thing that she had once thought to be an urban legend, at best. But still… they did look a bit stupid.

-CM-

In Setsuna's house, the aforementioned woman sneezed as she was pouring a cup of tea for Nodoka, looking annoyed as the pot jumped in her hand, spilling its contents all over the kitchen counter.

-CM-

Ranma suddenly nodded. "Oh yeah, Nabiki told me about 'em once. So what do we do then?"

"Well, you could proceed with your plans to spar with Mousse today," Cologne suggested, dabbing Happosai's forehead with cool water. "Finding Happosai as beaten up as he was yesterday, and believe me it was worse, shook him up a bit."

"Sure, I guess," Ranma said, glancing at Mousse. "C'mon duck boy," he said, putting on his 'You really, really wanna kill me' expression. "Let's go out back so I can kick your ass."

The pale color of Mousse's cheeks suddenly darkened, as he glared at Ranma. "That's what you think," he growled, charging out of the room. Haruka gaped for a moment, before running out after the two men.

After the young people were gone, Cologne sighed. "Happi, you idiot. What have you gotten yourself into this time?"

-CM-

'This is sparring?' Haruka thought, as a very real and very sharp scimitar wielded by Mousse sailed over Ranma's head, missing a very messy decapitation by what seemed like mere inches.

Now she sort of understood why some of the training Ranma had put her through was so intensive. If he had been sparring like this for his entire life, the training was probably necessary for survival. This battle had been going on for the past five minutes, and the robed martial artist had so far pulled about fifty pounds of weapons and chain from his robe. She now knew why Ranma had once called him the master of hidden weapons.

The pigtailed boy dodged another swing from the scimitar, and used a knife hand to Mousse's wrist to make him drop the weapon. Within seconds, another blade, this time a katana, fell into the hand from the sleeve, however Ranma had used Mousse's temporarily disarmed state to land a few powerful blows on the other man's midsection. Mousse rocketed back, hitting the ground and bouncing, however he turned the bounce into a roll, coming back to his feet and flicking his wrists, sending a flurry of knives at Ranma.

His eyes widened however when he realized that he'd just made a big mistake. Ranma was currently in between Mousse and Haruka, and some of the projectiles were on a straight course to hit the blonde. Thinking quickly and in a rather real panic, the pigtailed martial artist's hands blurred, and he caught all but one of the projectiles, which sailed past him and clipped Haruka in the cheek.

Haruka moved her hand up to her face, and felt the small cut the blade had made on her cheek with something approaching shock. If it had been a bit to the left, it probably would have killed her, and there had been many that were in that area, however Ranma had knocked them all off course., while the one that remained was too fast for her to even react to.

If the combat that had just taken place wasn't indicator enough, what had just happened told Haruka that Ranma was in a league of his own when it came to martial ability. If he'd been using that speed in the sparring match, Mousse would have been flattened.

"Hey Haruka, you okay?" Ranma asked, running over to her and grabbing her face to check the cut on her cheek.

The blonde exasperatedly shook Ranma off, slightly annoyed. "I'm fine." She said, although there was a small tremble in her voice that, thankfully, Ranma was too dense to pick up.

"Mousse, I'm gunna pound ya for that, but it's gunna be next week," Ranma snapped, glaring at Mousse, who just looked sheepish and mildly ashamed. He'd always had problems with bystanders, but he'd never come that close to actually killing one before.

"Let's go back home," Ranma decided, turning around and walking from the yard, holding Haruka by the arm.

"Ranma, I'm fine," Haruka insisted, irritated, pulling her arm free. "It was just a small scratch."

Ranma sighed. "Sorry 'bout that, Haruka." He shook his head. "Guess I sorta over-reacted because of what my life used ta be like, before I left home."

"Speaking of which, you haven't told me any of that," Haruka suddenly said.

"Well you've been pretty mysterious about your past, too," Ranma countered, annoyed.

Haruka grinned, having just had an idea. "How about we have dinner tonight and nose into each other's lives?"

"You askin for another date?" Ranma asked, surprised, as the two exited the Peaking Duck and turned onto the main street.

"Is that a yes?" Haruka asked, continuing to grin.

Ranma grinned back. "Sure, why not? But I gotta tell ya that my life's pretty strange," he confessed, looking a bit apprehensive.

"Well, it should be interesting dinner conversation then, right?" Haruka asked cheerfully. Then, she added her final shot. "You do remember that you're the girl tonight, right?"

Ranma stopped dead, and his eye twitched as Haruka started laughing and ran ahead of him. "Hey, get back here!" he yelled, chasing after her.

The worst part was, he couldn't argue with what she'd said. According to the deal they'd agreed upon at the end of their last date, he was supposed to be the girl this time. 'Kami this relationship's screwed up…' he thought, but then grinned. 'But at least it's more normal than life in Nerima.'

-CM-

In Setsuna's home, the guardian of time was actually having quite a bit of fun, sitting and drinking tea with Nodoka. One of the things that she always wanted, mostly due to her long and lonely stints at the Gates of Time during the intervening years between the Silver Millennium and the present day, was human companionship.

Most of the main line Setsunas were occupied with managing the timeline, or if they were lonely, they could call up some past or future version of themselves to talk to, but she hadn't had that luxury, mainly due to the fact that this universe's time gates were basically a really complex television. As a result, the quiet and reserved Nodoka was truly a treat to be with, even if the two talked mostly of inconsequential things and Setsuna's students.

She had a feeling that the other woman would eventually become more comfortable and loosen up. That should make for some interesting conversation.

As the front door to the house opened, the two older women looked up to see a panting, yet grinning Haruka charge in. Closely behind her Ranma came through the door with a similar look on his face. The blonde's cheer quickly took a hit however, when Nodoka leveled an icy glare at her.

"Haruka-san," she said coldly. "Hello, Ranma," she continued, her voice becoming warmer. "How did your spar with that Mousse boy go?"

Ranma looked slightly uncomfortable. Even during his time at the Tendo Dojo, his mother had made him feel a little uncomfortable but he decided to answer her with the truth. "It was all right, mostly. Duck boy's gotten a lot better since I fought him last, but he almost got Haruka with one of his stupid attacks."

Nodoka's coldness towards the blonde cross-dresser instantly thawed slightly. "Are you all right, Haruka-san?" she asked, getting out of the chair that she sat in next to Setsuna's large comfortable one in the living room.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Haruka said, waving off Nodoka's concern. In that moment, the former Saotome matriarch noticed how much alike Ranma and Haruka acted, and she began to understand why the girl had taken her on a joyride through Minato… Not that she'd let it slide, of course, but she understood.

Noticing something on Haruka's face, Nodoka reached out and grabbed it similarly to the way Ranma had earlier, and looked at the left cheek where Mousse's blade had cut her. For a moment Haruka was reminded of how her own mother had taken care of her injuries before she'd found out about Haruka's… preferences, and become somewhat colder and more distant.

"I'll go get a bandage for that," she said, before turning away.

"Thank you, Nodoka-san," Haruka said, uncertainly.

"Call me aunty, dear," Nodoka called over her shoulder, as she left the room.

"I think she likes you, despite what ya did to her this morning," Ranma said, laughing.

A few minutes later, as Haruka applied a skin-tone bandage to the cut on her cheek, she asked, "So, is this going to make me look like an idiot on the date tonight?" grinning at Ranma.

Nodoka, who had gone back to her seat and cup of tea with Setsuna, perked up. "You and Ranma are going out tonight?"

"Yeah, probably dinner and a movie," Haruka said, casually, wondering why Nodoka suddenly looked like a hungry wolf stalking its prey.

"Do you need me to help you get ready?" The older woman asked, expectantly.

Haruka blinked, and then began to catch on. "No, I think I'll be all right," she quickly said, laughing nervously. 'I wonder how she'll react when she sees us leave,' she thought, half dreading the event.

-CM-

Later that night, Nodoka's expression was rather interesting as she saw her former child, red hair tied into a ponytail and wearing a pair of dress slacks, that ironically enough she had bought her, and a red blouse, walking out of the house with Haruka, who was wearing a casual suit.

"Are… you sure you want to go out like that, Ranma?" she asked, her voice shaking as if she DESPERATELY wanted to say something a bit harsher.

Ranma looked apologetic, but she couldn't help but enjoy watching Nodoka squirm a little. Call it vengeance for all of the weird crap she'd given guys a bad name by claiming was manly, but seeing her desperately trying to hold back a 'not manly' comment made Ranma feel somehow pleased with herself.

"Not really much of a choice, Aunty," she said, casually. "It's the agreement me 'n Haruka worked out."

"Agreement?" Nodoka asked, and then couldn't resist a comment. "And it's Haruka and I, dear."

"Yeah. Since we both dress as guys and act like guys most of the time, we figured we'd alternate dates as the girl," Ranma explained. "It's Haruka's turn next time, right Haruka?" she asked, glaring at the blonde.

"Yeah, yeah," Haruka said, hurriedly, warding off the glare.

"Well… that's fine then. Have fun," Nodoka said, slightly relieved. At least Ranma wasn't going to be dressing up as a girl for all of their dates… but she must have a talk with Haruka at some point. This really couldn't be healthy.

-CM-

"You enjoyed that, and I'm not sure why," Haruka casually commented as the two gender confused individuals walked down the street outside of Setsuna's house.

Ranma shrugged, but didn't deny it. "So, where are we going?"

Haruka looked contemplative. "I said dinner and a movie earlier, but Nodoka-san already made dinner, so how about we go to the movie and tell our life stories on the way?" she suggested, uncertainly.

"I hope you picked a theatre that's pretty far away," Ranma said, grinning.

"That bad?" Haruka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Worse," Ranma confirmed.

With that, she began to tell a brief and abridged version of her life, leaving out her mother and the seppuku promise simply because she could imagine that Haruka wouldn't exactly be civil to Nodoka after learning that she was willing to chop someone's head off at one point.

-CM-

About twenty minutes later, Haruka was gaping. "Three fiancées?" Haruka sputtered, astonished.

"Don't forget the gymnast and the kendoist," Ranma chipped in, sardonically.

"And that Mousse guy and some others were actually attacking you every day?" Haruka continued, starting to wonder if Ranma was insane. Then again, from what she'd seen of Ranma and her fighting ability, something like that just may be the truth.

"Yep. Now, how about your story?" Ranma said, seeming to be completely casual about the gaping maw of insanity that her life had been before she had moved.

"After that story, mine's going to sound pretty dull," Haruka said, then continued. "Basically, I was your standard little rich kid."

"You're rich?" Ranma asked, looking surprised.

Haruka looked at her strangely. "Yeah," she said, slowly.

"You did live in the same apartment building I did, right?" Ranma asked, sarcastically.

"Yeah, but I was also carting around a high performance racing motorcycle," Haruka retorted, shrugging. "Now can I continue my story?"

Ranma nodded, and Haruka did so. "Well, When I was about seven, my parents picked up this little dirt bike, and I took a ride on it. I'd always been really good in track and field, but when I got a hold of that bike…" Haruka grinned dreamily before continuing. "Well, they spoiled me rotten, obviously, and helped me get into racing. Everyone at school said it was a boy's sport and so did most of the race officials, so I started dressing as a guy. When I got to the age when you're supposed to start noticing the opposite sex, I was hanging around with guys, whistling at the girls just like one of the guys, and it felt right."

"I bet your parents weren't very happy about that," Ranma muttered, imagining her father, or even worse, her mother's reaction if she were to start liking guys.

Haruka laughed. "Mom was ready to kill me, cut off my head or something." Looking at Ranma, she wondered why she suddenly flinched at that remark, but continued. "Dad though… he was a bit odd. I think he'd always wanted a son, and after he found out I liked girls he started treating me as his little boy. Drove mom up the wall! Of course, a few months ago they both told me that there was this arranged marriage that they'd made when I was only about six and that I was supposed to marry some guy I didn't even know. Kind of like with you and that Akane girl you were telling me about."

For some reason, Ranma flinched again. "So who was this guy you were supposed to marry?" she asked, while thinking that the Kami couldn't possibly be cruel enough to do what she almost knew was coming.

Haruka put a closed fist under her chin in thought for a minute, before laughing. "Y'know, I don't think I even remember the guy's name anymore. Anyways, after I found out about that I got on my bike and got as far away as I could on one tank of gas."

So, Haruka had run from an arrangement like her father and Mr. Tendo's plan to join the schools. Sometimes she wished that she'd done the same. Maybe then, her honor would have only been damaged by one broken promise and maybe she wouldn't have hurt Akane so much…

"Hey Ranma, we're here. What are you thinking so intently about?" Haruka asked, snapping her fingers in front of the redhead's face.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, blinking as the well lit inside of a movie theatre greeted her gaze. "Oh, we're here… I wasn't thinking about anything," she lied, before following Haruka into the theatre.

-CM-

About eighty minutes later Haruka was cursing herself for being an idiot.

She had treated the movie selection as if she were taking a normal girl to the movies, that is, a romantic flick. Of course Ranma was more male than she was, even under the cute redheaded form she currently wore, and kind of a stereotypical male at that. She'd fallen asleep after the first forty five minutes of the movie and Haruka had been forced to sit through the rest of it alone.

Of course, there were consolations like seeing Ranma-chan's cute expressions as she tried to make herself comfortable in her sleep. Haruka jumped as the redhead fell a little to the right and her head came to rest on the blonde's shoulder. Reaching up with one hand, the blonde absently began stroking the redhead's silky hair and the other girl began to move closer.

She couldn't help but grin as she thought that this petite, delicate looking girl had only a short time ago been the man who had scooped her up in his arms and bounded across roofs like they were nothing.

The reversal when Ranma changed forms was almost comical. Even though Haruka was about the same size as Ranma's male form, he was protective of her and even when sparring and inflicting injury he was always careful with her. When Ranma was female, she was small, and even though Haruka's brain told her that she had a similar amount of strength to her male form, the cross-dressing blonde couldn't help but to feel that she had to protect and care for Ranma's cursed form the same way he seemed to do for her.

'Kami this relationship's screwed up…" she thought, but smiled. 'Screwed up isn't necessarily a bad thing, though.'

As she thought about her and Ranma's different interactions, a funny idea popped into her head. The movie was going to end in about five minutes and if she was careful she could pick Ranma up without waking her. Reaching under the redhead's legs and putting a hand behind her head, she lifted her in much the same way Ranma had this morning.

'I wonder if he realized that this is how you're supposed to carry your bride over a threshold?' she thought with a grin, before carefully navigating her way out of the row of seats where she and Ranma had sat and up the aisle. The redhead was strangely heavy for her size, but even so she was light enough for Haruka to handle.

As she passed the ticket booth at the front of the theatre, she saw the young man inside it give her a thumbs up and a big grin. Haruka grinned back. Even if she hadn't done what the guy thought, increasing one's reputation always helped, right?

About twenty minutes later Haruka was regretting this idea just a bit. Her back hurt like hell from supporting Ranma's weight, but every time she tried to wake the redhead, she'd just mutter plaintively and tighten her hold around Haruka's neck, something that had happened about ten minutes into the walk. Then again, the red hair tickling her chin and the breath whispering across her neck was extremely distracting.

Fortunately, just as Haruka's protesting back was about to make her set Ranma down for at least a few minutes, she came into sight of the house and forced herself to make it to the door.

'If I carry her in like this…' she thought, with an evil grin.

Using her foot, she kicked at the door as her hands weren't free to knock or open it. It seemed that the noise of her kicking the door was causing Ranma to wake up, though, as her body was squirming in Haruka's arms.

'Hurry up…' she thought, just as the door opened to reveal Nodoka and Setsuna.

-CM-

"Ngh… what's goin on?" Ranma asked, blurrily, as she felt that she was being carried by someone.

Cracking an eye open, she saw an expanse of grey. Pulling her head back, it resolved into Haruka's suit jacket and the blonde's grinning face as she looked over Ranma's shoulder. Craning her neck, Ranma then saw her mother gaping at them and Setsuna staring at her and Haruka in bemusement. "This is your revenge for this morning, isn't it?"

"Yep," Haruka said, cheerfully, entering the house and setting Ranma down on her feet in the hallway.

"I'm sure you two had an interesting night," Nodoka said, dryly, her eye twitching.

"Why don't you tell us all about it?" Setsuna chipped in, a large grin on her face. 'Having these two around is going to be fun!' she thought.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Devil-hunting Duck and the Chef's Plot.

Ukyo Kuonji looked through the plate glass window of her shop with an odd look on her face. It was hard to tell if she felt anger or sadness as she studied the blonde haired person who was carrying a red-haired girl in their arms. She knew a lot about Ranma, and more about cross-dressing and cross dressers, which meant she was easily able to identify the blonde as a woman.

As the two disappeared out of sight, the okonomiyaki chef's right hand, which had until now been resting by her side, snapped up to grab one of her throwing spatulas and clench it tightly until it's handle bent out of shape.

"Konatsu…" she whispered, causing the femininely dressed boy who had been standing next to her unobtrusively to start and look directly at her.

"Yes, Ukyo-sama?" Konatsu asked, quietly.

"Follow them," the girl said, the two words clipped and shortened. If by anger or sadness Konatsu couldn't tell. Even so, the ninja did as he was told, leaving the new Ucchan's and running silently down the street.

-CM-

Mousse walked through the streets of Tokyo, trying to clear his head.

He had been doing this for the past few days, however it didn't seem to be working so far. Of course no one could really blame him, as the world had been getting a bit too weird for him lately. First Ranma had left Nerima, followed by himself, Cologne and rumors had it even Ukyo and now he'd found Happosai half-dead in an alley.

He didn't exactly like the old freak, but in Nerima no one had gotten hurt. No matter how many times death threats were uttered, it seemed to always come to nothing, the world going on as it had always done after the battle, with just a bit more wreckage… but it wasn't even really Happosai's state that bothered Mousse, it was more than just a day later he'd almost killed a bystander by accident, yet another thing that had never happened in Nerima.

Growling as the sight of Haruka's terrified face after his own blade nearly killed her kept running through his head, Mousse whipped an arm out, riddling a defenseless brick wall with throwing knives. At the moment he'd give almost anything to be distracted from his own thoughts, however the Peking Duck was closed while Cologne took care of Happosai and he didn't have much else to do.

As he thought this, the sound of a creature of some sort roaring in challenge and then a wall crumbling came rolling down the street. 'Be careful what you wish for…' he thought, charging in to see what had made the noise.

-CM-

Today was definitely not Makoto Kino's day. This was the top thought on the mind of the tall brown haired Senshi as she ran from a rather ugly looking Youma.

Normally she wouldn't be running from a Youma, but it had attacked too quickly for her to get her henshin pen out and transform. To make the situation worse, it had knocked her into a wall, breaking her communicator right as she was trying to call for the other senshi's help. She was running towards the city's shopping district, which contained a lot of people, but at the moment all she was hoping was that another of the Senshi would see her and help her out.

Diving out of the way of a thrown garbage can, the Senshi of Thunder cursed to herself. "Come on Makoto, gotta move faster…" she muttered, diving down a side street to avoid another lobbed projectile.

She skidded to a stop as she realized that she'd made a mistake, having entered a dead end alley. The wall at the end was too high for her civilian form to jump, and there were no exits.

Whirling around as she reached the end of the alley, the girl grabbed a steel pipe that was laying on the ground and prepared to fight the rapidly charging monster. Even if she couldn't transform, Makoto was not going down without a fight!

The monster was lifting one clawed arm to deal a blow that would probably remove Makoto's arm at the shoulder, when a loud ringing and jangling sound ripped through the air, followed by a chain that wrapped itself around the Youma's arm and tightened, pulling it back over it's owner's head in a rather painful fashion.

"Hey you!" came a loud voice from somewhere above, "Why don't you pick on someone who can fight back, huh?"

Makoto bristled at the implication that she couldn't fight back, however she also realized that whoever this was he'd given her enough time to change. Dodging past the monster as the chain's wielder dove down to alley level to confront it, she caught a glimpse of familiar looking glasses before she was out of the alley and onto the empty street.

Quickly she pulled her henshin pen from stuff space, holding it high. "Jupiter Star Power, make up!" she shouted, and within a flash of light, transformed into her sailor form.

As Sailor Jupiter re-entered the alley she was surprised to see that the person who had saved her was now doing direct battle with the Youma, and doing it relatively well all things considered. He seemed to fight with the use of long chains and throwing weapons, and was distracting and annoying the creature quite a bit.

Unfortunately, it quickly became evident that ALL he was doing was annoying the Youma, as a sword that had almost sliced it's arm off quickly found itself being shot out of the wound as it regenerated. Seeing that the demon was pushing its current opponent quite a bit, the watching Senshi decided that it was time to interfere.

"You, stop!" she commanded, looking sheepish for a second as both the youma and the man fighting it turned to look at her. This was really Sailor Moon's thing after all. Oh well. Clearing her throat, she spoke again. "Disturbing the peace and chasing innocent men and women to steal their energy is evil. In the name of Jupiter I shall punish you!"

She shifted uncomfortably, feeling pretty sure she'd blown the speech, before shrugging and gathering a bolt of energy in her hands. "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

-CM-

Mousse was getting irritated.

He had heard Ranma describing the creatures that seemed to be pretty common around here when he'd described them to Cologne, but this was ridiculous. This monster, whatever it was, wouldn't fall no matter what he hit it with and that included high explosives. About the only things that caused it any problems at all were his chains, and he was running low on them since it kept breaking the ones he threw.

Right after it seemed to throw a scythe, and one of his brand new stainless steel ones at that, out of its body simply by regenerating the wound, the blind boy was interrupted in a long string of Chinese invective by the sound of a familiar girl's voice.

"Stop!"

The master of hidden weapons quickly turned his head to see the girl who had spoken, but as his glasses had been knocked off in the fighting, all he saw was a brown and green blur. The girl said something else and he was sure that he'd heard the voice before, though he couldn't place it for some reason. As he turned his blurred vision back towards the monster, a bright ball of light seemed to shoot at it from the girl's direction, causing it to bellow in pain.

"Well at least that hurt it a bit," he muttered, slightly disgruntled that the girl had managed to hurt the thing more in five seconds than he had in the past three minutes.

-CM-

Another five minutes later, Sailor Jupiter and Mousse were both hardily sick of the Youma.

Jupiter still didn't have her communicator to call Sailor Moon to dust the thing and even with the help of the boy who was fighting alongside her, she couldn't do enough damage herself to completely destroy the creature. It was at that point in the battle when things changed in the humans' favor, although the event which caused this would normally seem bad.

Mousse had just chucked a fresh volley of chains when Jupiter's supreme thunder intersected with them, causing Mousse to get a rather severe shock along with the Youma.

Luckily, the blind hidden weapons master's first twitch had caused him to let go of his end of the chain, lessoning the shock to his body drastically, however it did leave him punch drunk for a few seconds. The Youma capitalized on the opening, driving one of its two annoying attackers to the ground.

Jupiter quickly diverted the Youma's attention again and Mousse regained his feet.

As he did so however, he began to think. He had been shocked by electricity before, it was an almost inevitable occurrence when one threw large amounts of metal around in a city, and knew how much damage a high enough dose could do. In fact, he'd been working on a technique for using that to his advantage, however he'd never had access to a safe source of high voltage power before.

With a grin, the master of hidden weapons began to run around the Youma, wrapping it in chains. Before the creature could break free, he threw the ends of the chain to Jupiter. The green skirted Senshi looked down at the chain in her hands for a moment, confused, until she got the idea and channeled a supreme thunder attack through the chain. The magical electricity from the attack arced through the Youma and around the chains, until it overloaded its healing ability and the creature fell to dust.

As Mousse began to retrieve the few discarded weapons that weren't broken or melted, the blurred green girl walked towards him. Since the battle was over, he took the time to fish a spare set of his glasses out of his pocket and put them on his face as she stopped in front of him.

"Excuse me…" the girl said as she came within a few feet of Mousse. He looked up, after securing his glasses, and they both stopped in shock for a moment.

Mousse's only thought was that the girl was really cute and that uniform or whatever it was she was wearing was really short. He desperately tried to suppress a nosebleed, thinking of all the times he'd fought Ranma's cursed form when she was half clothed. He began to want to bash his head against the wall when the thoughts of Ranma's cursed form also made him start to blush.

Damn it, without Shampoo to fixate on, he was finding it hard to ignore pretty girls… he just hoped Ranma wouldn't figure that out and use it to weaken him during their next battle.

Unlike Mousse, the girl hadn't stopped because she was suppressing a nosebleed. She'd just recognized the man who'd rescued her as the cute waiter who worked at the Peking Duck. "H… Hi," she squeaked, before clearing her throat. "I… I just wanted to thank you for helping me in that fight," she said, quickly, before averting her eyes.

"It was no problem," Mousse said, managing to pull himself together after the shock of the girl's pretty and scantily clad appearance. Even if he was noticing girls other than Shampoo now, he was NOT Ryoga and would not start acting like an idiot just because one talked to him.

"I should probably leave now," the girl said, running down the alley and leaping to a rooftop.

Even with his constant assurances that he wasn't Ryoga and wouldn't pass out with a nosebleed, the inadvertent panty shot the girl had given him almost sent Mousse over the edge. Quickly regaining his composure, the blind man packed the rest of his recoverable weapons into his robes and left the alley.

-CM-

On the rooftop, Sailor Jupiter sighed dreamily. Mousse was definitely her type of guy. He could cook, he could fight and he could even help out in Senshi battles just like Tuxedo Mask. That was it, she was definitely going to catch Mousse, if only to keep Usagi from inadvertently, or deliberately, bragging about her beloved Mamo-chan all the time.

Down on the street, Mousse suddenly felt a chill down his spine for no adequately explained reason.

-CM-

Setsuna Meiou was grinning. This, from what Ranma had seen so far, wasn't unusual. What was unusual however was how the older woman was grinning. The pigtailed martial artist had seen a very similar grin on Nabiki's face whenever she had a scheme on the go. It was the 'I know something you don't' grin, and he would eventually grow to loath it as much as he did cats.

"Hey Setsuna, what's goin on?" he asked, casually as he knelt at his new home's dining room table, eating lunch. The day before he'd started out using formal address to talk to her. However, she'd almost immediately asked him to just call her Setsuna and given how little he used formal speech, he'd easily agreed.

"Oh, nothing," the green haired woman said, the grin still present on her face as she settled down on the other side of the table, picking up a freshly brewed tea pot from where she'd set it only a few moments before and pouring herself a cup.

In reality, the green haired woman had just left the house, teleporting to the chamber of the Gates of Time as she had felt something fundamentally shift about the life of one of the Senshi. As the Senshi of Time she could feel it when one of the other Senshi hit a turning point in their lives, even if she couldn't look forward to see where the new path lead.

Even so, Makoto's chance meeting with Mousse couldn't possibly be something too negative, so she decided to leave it alone.

"You hear me, Setsuna-san?" came the trailing edge of a question, from a person who the time Senshi hadn't even heard enter the room.

"I apologize… what was that Nodoka-san?" Setsuna asked, shaking her head clear.

Unlike with Ranma and Haruka, Setsuna had quickly picked up the fact that her older house guest enjoyed using the more formal forms of Japanese, and even clung to them almost like a security blanket or something, actually feeling uncomfortable when she acted informally.

"I asked if you had finished the tea yet," Nodoka said, sounding concerned. "Are you feeling well?"

"I'm fine, I was just a little distracted," Setsuna admitted, getting up from the table and carrying her cup and the pot into the living room to resume a conversation she'd been having with Nodoka before hurriedly leaving, using a fresh pot of tea as an excuse to get away and check the gates.

"What was that all about?" Haruka asked from her position next to Ranma, enjoying a western style lunch she had made. Personally, Ranma couldn't see the appeal in the stuff, especially in such small portions.

He just shrugged. "Got me."

-CM-

Outside of the Meiou house, Konatsu crouched in a tree, using all of his ninja abilities to keep himself unseen. This was harder than it sounded, as Ranma wasn't the only person he was worried about avoiding detection by. To his alert senses, the green-haired older woman seemed to be observing everything around her with what was almost a martial artist's level of skill, and he could have sworn that she'd almost looked right at him twice in the past two hours.

The other two, Ranma's mother and the cross-dressing girl, fortunately had far less observational ability.

As the pseudo-female ninja continued gathering information on the house, he wondered precisely what it was going to be used for. His Ukyo-sama had been acting strangely ever since she'd seen Ranma with the blonde girl a few nights ago and he was afraid that she'd do something impulsive and rash. Unfortunately, if she did so he would be obliged to follow her.

He loved his Ukyo-sama dearly, but sometimes she could be as thick as Ranma.

-CM-

Later that night Ukyo and Konatsu were both sitting up in the same tree the male kunoichi had occupied earlier.

"Are you sure you wish to do this, Ukyo-sama?" the latter asked, unsure.

"I have no choice, you know that Konatsu," Ukyo shot back, checking the sharpness of her battle spatula, creating a small nick in one finger. With a slight hiss, she bandaged the cut and continued. "Besides, Ran-chan… I mean Ranma," she said angrily, "has moved on pretty damn fast."

"Is that what this is about Ukyo-sama? That girl that Ranma-san was with?" Konatsu asked, confused.

"That's not what this is about!" Ukyo shouted, before calming herself quickly so as to not alert her targets. Turning a glare to Konatsu, she continued. "Now you go after Ranma and I take the girl…" she started, before seeing the look in Konatsu's eyes. "And it's not so that I can get revenge for her stealing Ran-chan, it's because I know I don't have a chance in hell of hurting him!" she snapped.

Konatsu looked at his mistress doubtfully, but orders were orders. "Yes, Ukyo-sama," he said reluctantly as he checked over his own gear. "Though I must warn you that I probably cannot defeat Ranma-san either, since last time I only fought him to a draw while under the influence of a mind altering…" he stopped talking when Ukyo glared at him again and merely nodded his head.

Within about ten seconds, Ukyo and Konatsu descended from their tree, heading for the windows that Konatsu had earlier identified as belonging to their respective targets.

As the ninja climbed into Ranma's bedroom, he quickly looked around, noticing that the place was far better furnished than the martial artist's room at the Tendo Dojo, and far better looking as well. It was almost a shame that the fight was going to tear it up.

Sneaking over to the bed, he pulled a kunai from his sleeve and held it above Ranma's head. Whispering an apology, he plunged it down towards the motionless sleeper…. Only to have it miss as he rolled over to get more comfortable.

After about five minutes of careful strikes, Ranma's pillow was so much fluff on the top of the bed, but the martial artist himself was still sound to sleep. Showing a rare streak of frustration, the kunoichi kicked his target, thus causing Ranma to roll out of the bed and hit the floor on his feet.

"What's goin on?" the martial artist asked, looking around in a state of sleep-muddled confusion.

The ninja didn't speak, merely leaping at his target with both hands holding a kodachi that he'd pulled out of nowhere similar to the way Mousse manifested his weapons. It seemed like being attacked woke the former Saotome up quickly, as he blinked his eyes a couple times and asked, "Konatsu? What're you doing here?"

"I am sorry Ranma-san, but I was ordered to do this," the ninja responded, lunging at his target again.

-CM-

A couple of rooms over, Ukyo was attempting to sneak her way into Haruka's bedroom. Unfortunately, she wasn't nearly as silent as Konatsu and Haruka wasn't quite as heavy a sleeper as Ranma.

As the okonomiyaki chef looked down on the girl who had stolen her Ran-chan, she tried to fuel a sense of anger. She had never killed before and the idea was abhorrent to her even with her many years of training to take vengeance on Ranma and his father, but this girl, she tried to convince herself, deserved to die.

She had taken her Ran-chan from her somehow. It seemed that for Ukyo's entire life, someone had been taking things from her. First her father insisted on training her in the art when other girls were playing with friends and dolls. Then Ranma had taken her title as the best in the area away, but he'd given her back something else…. He'd been her friend, and she'd really loved him. Then, the jackass had run off and taken her family cart from her and her former 'friends' at school had taken her womanhood with their constant insults.

Her anger was growing now. She'd seen how Akane had taken her Ran-chan after she'd finally caught up to him. He'd been her whole life then and now… And now… She shuddered. She didn't even know what was happening now. It was true that she'd decided to take on the girl because she was at least a half decent fighter and could get in the way of her vengeance on Ranma… a vengeance that she didn't even want… but…

With a growl of confused frustration, Ukyo swung her battle spatula down in a wide arc, it's sharp end poised to remove one blonde topped head from its body.

It was at that moment that the small noises Ukyo had been making for the past thirty seconds finally woke Haruka enough for the blonde to realize what was happening. Instinctively, she lashed out with her feet, throwing her unknown assailant across her room and to the ground with a soft gasp. Rolling out of bed and kicking off the blankets, she examined the form that she'd kicked, noticing what looked like a huge spatula strapped to the back of her opponent. This was immediately connected to a name from the stories Ranma had told.

"Ukyo…" she muttered, sleepily.

"How do you know my name?" Ukyo asked, surprised, as she caught her breath and hefted her spatula again. Swinging it, she growled in annoyance as Haruka used what looked like one of Ranma's basic dodging techniques to get out of its way.

"Ranma told me about you…" Haruka said, barely dodging Ukyo's second swing. "Now do you mind telling me why you're trying to kill me?" The blonde was annoyed by this point, but also slightly nervous. According to Ranma's description of his 'old friend Ucchan,' the girl was better than she was by a fair margin, and she looked pissed.

"You… You stole Ran-chan!" Ukyo spat, as she ran at Haruka again.

After a few minutes of fighting, it was official. Ukyo Kuonji was kicking Haruka's ass. Haruka was desperately pulling out every trick that she knew, both her own and what she'd seen of Ranma's, but her opponent just kept countering them. She'd even managed to knock the giant spatula out of the psychotic brown haired girl's hands once, but then she'd started throwing those damned little ones and Haruka had wished that she hadn't.

Ukyo had her battle spatula back now, and was backing a gasping Haruka up against a wall. "Now…" she snarled, panting for breath herself as she spoke through a bloody lip that she had gotten near the beginning of the fight, "You die!"

As her opponent raised her weapon up for the killing blow, Haruka closed her eyes in expectation. She was too tired to try countering again, and she was backed into a corner. She just hoped the other girl would miss or something. She seemed to hear Ukyo's battle spatula coming towards her head, before she heard something else. It sounded like a phrase, whispered so softly as to almost be inaudible but still capable of being heard through the entire room.

It sounded like "Dead scream."

Opening her eyes, Haruka was shocked to see a ball of green light smash into Ukyo, sending her catapulting into the wall on the other side of the room from the window. Whipping her head around, she saw what looked like the end of a stream of long hair disappearing from sight past the edge of the window frame.

Within seconds Ranma had charged into the room, knocking the door open and also, by the sound of it, breaking the lock. He looked like hell, with a few cuts along his arms and face, as well as what looked like lipstick marks everywhere and several nasty looking bruises. "Haruka, you okay?" he gasped, coming to a screeching halt as he saw Ukyo laying in a crumpled heap against a wall.

"I'm fine…" Haruka said, however the dozens of aches and pains all over her body told a different story.

Ranma didn't seem to believe Haruka's words, and was across the room almost instantly to examine her. "This don't look fine," he said, pointing to a large gash that bled freely on her shoulder.

As she winced, Haruka had to agree.

"What in the world is going on in here?" Nodoka asked, as she had just come in after hearing all of the noise of the fights. She gasped as she saw Ranma and Haruka's injuries, and then went pale as she saw Ukyo's crumpled form. "What…" she stammered, as Setsuna came up behind her.

"Nodoka-san, perhaps we should wait downstairs," the green haired woman said, gently guiding the auburn haired one from the room. "I'm sure Ranma and Haruka can handle this." She threw Ranma a meaningful glance, which he returned with a thankful one.

-CM-

Ukyo woke up to a burning pain all over her body. She'd been just about to kill the girl, when she'd been hit with something… from somewhere. Shaking her head, she opened her eyes to see that she was laying on a bed, with Ranma and the girl, she believed Konatsu had told her that her name was Haruka, glaring down at her.

"Ukyo," Ranma said, levelly. She so wanted to reach up and strangle him at this moment… or was that to hug him?

"I… I guess I failed again, huh sugar?" she asked, resignedly.

"You failed again?" Ranma asked, his level stare turning into a hard glare. "Just what the hell were ya doin, anyways? I told ya that I'd left the Saotome family ta get away from shit like this!" At this point, he'd walked away from the bed and was pacing around, clenching his fists. "I told ya that yer god damned honor feud was with Genma now, and ya come here ta kill Haruka? What the HELL were ya thinkin, Ukyo?" It seemed that Ranma's grammar got worse as he got angrier, Ukyo observed, distantly.

"My father…" she croaked, weakly, beginning to recover from whatever had put her down in the first place.

"Yer father what?" Ranma asked, annoyed.

"My father told me that I had to kill you to get my family honor back… So I could return home…" she said, softly. Before he could continue, she interrupted. "I… I couldn't stand the idea of trying to kill you, Ran-chan… I thought…" She sighed. "I… I don't know what I thought…"

"I'll tell ya what ya thought," Ranma growled, narrowing his eyes. "Ya thought that if ya killed Haruka, I'd go marry ya for some reason. Same stupid reasonin that ya came up with at the wedding."

Ukyo tried to object, even if what Ranma said made sense, when the pigtailed martial artist continued. "Well I'll tell ya what. If ya attack Haruka again, hell if ya LOOK at her funny again, I go down ta your pop's place in Osaka and I level the thing with him in it... 'n then I come back ta get you."

Ukyo let off a soft gasp at the venom in Ranma's words and Haruka looked uncertainly at the pacing and growling martial artist. "Ranma, calm down," she said, walking in front of him and grabbing him by the shoulder. "What's wrong with you?"

Seeing the concern in Haruka's eyes, Ranma let out a calming breath and then seemed to realize what he'd just said. Suddenly a flashback went through his brain. He was at the ice rink during the martial arts figure skating fiasco. 'Akane's my Fiancée, and if you lay a hand on her I'll kill you!' Shaking off the image, the martial artist grinned crookedly at Haruka.

"Sorry 'bout that, Haruka-chan," he said, his grin widening at her eyebrow twitch. "Ukyo, just get outta here… Konatsu's unconscious in my room. Sorry but I wasn't too gentle on him when I put him out."

Ukyo just nodded shakily, getting to her feet and dragged herself out of Haruka's bedroom. When she was gone the blonde looked around and frowned slightly. "Well this place is totaled…" she muttered.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Ranma said, frowning as well as he saw that Ukyo's battle spatula had slashed Haruka's bed to pieces. "My room's just as torn up."

"Well… we could get some cold water and the Futon out of your pack, you know, so we'd both fit," Haruka said, waggling her eyebrows. Even if the weirdest thing that had ever happened in her life had just happened tonight, she was still Haruka.

"What?" Ranma yelped, looking incredulously at her. "I got two futons, you know," he continued, regaining his composure.

"Spoil sport, I say," Haruka grumbled as she began to walk out of the room.

Ranma just sighed in exasperation before he thought of something. "Oh yeah, thanks to this little incident, We're sparring every day now," he told her with a grin.

Haruka just groaned.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Time and Contemplation.

Ranma Saotome laid awake in his futon, gazing up into the blackness of an empty room, his mind refusing to give up and go to sleep. Nearby, but a safe distance away, Haruka Tenoh also lay. However, the martial artist could tell that she slept deeply by the soft sound of her breathing and the relaxed state of her Chi.

Many of the things that occupied Ranma's mind at the moment had to do with the girl sleeping nearby, and they had all hit him at once while standing in a half destroyed bedroom about an hour earlier.

He recalled, with regret the harsh words he had spoken to his oldest friend, Ucchan, and then shook his head. Ucchan was probably not his friend anymore, especially given what he had said to her tonight. He knew that he'd over-reacted, his anger flaring in a way that it almost never did, and that was the problem.

Ranma had seriously threatened to kill two people in his life before this moment. One was Mikado Sanzenin as he threatened to force himself upon Akane Tendo. The other was Saffron, the king of the Phoenix people, and with a great deal of luck he had carried through on that threat, tearing the birdman into hundreds of pieces with a Hiryu Shoten Ha.

He wasn't afraid that he was going to do something similar to Ukyo, he had better control than that, but the only times he had gotten that angry before were directly linked to Akane's protection. He had loved Akane. He knew that, now. He had left Nerima, in part because of that. The curse, as he had said, had been a big part of it. What man wants his fiancée to flinch away and pretend he's just a friend every time it rained?

There had been a lot more to it, though.

If he had admitted that he loved Akane, what would have changed? She was still one of multiple fiancées, all of whom he had honor debts to, and she had a life in Nerima, one that HAD been half-way normal before he'd showed up. He couldn't have taken her with him when he became a Ronin. Their fathers' little plans to get them married, and all of the other crap that had gone on during his stay in Nerima, also contributed to the problems with his and Akane's relationship… but this was just distracting him from the current problem.

He rolled over in his futon, trying to get into a comfortable position. Unknown to him, he had rolled just a little bit closer to Haruka in the movement. He attempted once again to sleep, but the thoughts continued to run around in his head.

"I ain't gunna be able ta sleep 'till I get this sorted out, am I?" he muttered to himself, too softly for anyone to hear. Getting up out of his futon, he tip-toed across the room and grabbed his pants, pulling them on. The undershirt he was already wearing would work for training in the middle of the night.

Stepping out the back door of the house, Ranma walked into the middle of the yard and began a slow and relaxing Kata from the art of Tai Chi. Since he had very rarely been given time to just sit around and think as a kid, he had developed an almost need to have his body do something while he thought. It was one of the many reasons he kept falling asleep in school.

Letting his body go into auto-pilot, doing a series of Kata that he had done hundreds of times before, Ranma let his mind range back out into the territory it had been in before he got up. He tried to draw his mind away from any further remembrance of Akane, though. This, of course, left him with what had happened earlier in the night again. He would have to see Ukyo as soon as he could. He wasn't going to let this continue and become like his feud with Ryoga, as Ukyo seemed to have little problem with getting rid of Haruka the hard way. He hadn't thought his oldest friend capable of that. Would she really have carried through on it?

Suddenly, a soft sound impinged on Ranma's awareness. It was a rustling, coming from a tree in the yard. Thinking that it could be Konatsu coming back to observe the house, the martial artist quickly ran at the tree, trying his best to hide his advance in the shadows, and jumped into the branches. When he got to where the rustling had come from, instead of a quazi-female Ninja Ranma found a green haired woman in what looked like an abbreviated school uniform looking at the area where he had been practicing with a confused expression.

"Excuse me?" Ranma asked, bemused.

The green haired woman jumped a little on her branch, and would have fallen forward off of it if it weren't for Ranma catching her shoulder. With a feeling that she now knew what Usagi felt like, would feel like, when she started teleporting in behind her in a few months, She resolved not to do that. It almost gave her a heart attack.

"You ain't here ta kill me or marry me are you?" Ranma asked, seeing the woman's silence as an opportunity to get the usual pleasantries out of the way. "If it's 'cuz of a deal between you and Genma Saotome, I ain't his son anymore so You're gunna have to take it out on the Panda."

The green haired woman laughed. "I am here for neither of those reasons, Ranma," she said, not giving him time to ask how she knew his name. "I am Sailor Pluto, one of the Sailor Senshi who defend this city from demons."

Ranma looked surprised as he saw the woman's uniform and the large heart shaped staff that she was holding. Haruka hadn't been kidding when she talked about these people's uniforms, but if they were magical girls like the ones Nabiki liked to watch on TV when she thought no one was around to see it, he supposed a frilly uniform was sort of part of the job.

"So what's one of you Senshi doin' in a tree outside of Setsuna-san's house?" he asked in suspicion.

"Someone was attacked and almost killed here earlier," Pluto said in a level voice. "The Senshi usually do fight demons, however helping a person who's in a different sort of danger isn't unreasonable, is it?" she asked while raising an eyebrow.

As she said that, several things connected in Ranma's mind. When he had rushed into Haruka's room he had found Ukyo flung against the far wall and out cold. He had thought at the time that Haruka had managed an incredibly lucky shot or that Ukyo had gotten careless in her anger, but a third party knocking her out made a lot more sense, especially since the blow that had done it left bruises similar to being hit with a Moko Takabisha.

"You're the one who stopped Ukyo from…" he muttered, giving voice to his thoughts.

"Yes," Pluto nodded.

"Thanks for helpin out," Ranma thanked her, getting a little less suspicious of the intruder in the tree. "And thanks for holdin back when ya hit Ucchan."

Pluto tried to suppress her shock, and succeeded quite aptly. It wouldn't have mattered if she hadn't, anyways, as Ranma couldn't read facial expressions at all when not in a fight. 'Can he somehow read my aura through my disguise field?' she thought, before asking aloud, "How do you know that I was holding back?"

Ranma shrugged. "Because that shot wouldn't have really affected a monster like the ones that are runnin around here."

Pluto simply nodded

"Look," Ranma said, starting to become uncomfortable with the silence. "Thanks a lot for the help, but Ukyo and Konatsu ain't gunna be back tonight and you probably got other things ta do then sit here and watch this place." Pluto smiled, and was raising her staff to begin a teleport when Ranma continued to speak. "Oh, and if ya ever need some help with one of those Demons, I'd be glad ta help."

The Senshi of time smiled. She knew, as well as Ranma did, that the boy didn't stand a chance against the more powerful strains of Youma, but he wasn't going to admit it, and she wasn't going to say it. One thing she knew that he didn't, however, was that he was soon going to get the power to assist the Senshi… or rather, she was.

At that moment, Pluto got an idea. She couldn't predict the future at all, but through studying a few alternate plains she knew that Michiru was supposed to summon her henshin pen out of need during an encounter with a Youma. Ranma, however, wasn't Michiru and his mere presence in the area made things hard to predict.

"There is one thing you could do to assist me with," Tthe Senshi said, causing Ranma to look at her sharply. For some reason she now reminded him very much of Nabiki. "Take this," she flicked her hand, and produced a small pen with a blue casing and a golden symbol on the top that looked like a trident.

"What is it?" Ranma asked, hesitant to take the object.

"It's a small artifact that could help you if you get into trouble with a demon," Pluto explained perfectly truthfully. "It will not cause you any harm and you will know how to use it when you need to."

Ranma blinked, and then reached out tentatively to pick the object up off of the woman's hand. This tiny thing could help if he got in trouble with a demon? "This sounds more like you doin somethin for me than me returning a favor," he told her in confusion.

"Believe me," Pluto responded, "You having this item will help the Senshi out quite a bit."

"Thanks, I guess," Ranma said, uncertainly. Before he could say anything else, the green haired Senshi had lifted her staff and disappeared from the tree. "Neat trick," he muttered, jumping down himself.

That last event had pretty well distracted him from his earlier problems and when he re-entered the house and flopped down on his Futon, he quickly found himself drifting off to sleep.

-CM-

Haruka Tenoh was warm. She was comfortable, safe and a bunch of other pleasant and reassuring things. The pillow she was laying against was warm and it's rhythmic moving up and down was quite relaxing. One of her arms was draped over it. In fact, she was pretty well hugging it and... wait… was it hugging her back?

"Aw, isn't that cute," came a voice, containing a rather large amount of mirth.

Haruka's eyes opened slowly, not wanting to give up on the comfort of sleep, to look at what looked like the join between a person's neck and shoulder. She blinked several times, as this wasn't precisely what she was expecting. She'd woken up looking down on someone else's head nestled up against her a couple of times, but this was new. Pulling back, she saw the relaxed and sleeping face of Ranma.

"Ack!" Haruka squeaked as she jumped.

Ranma grumbled a bit, saying something like "Don wanna train t'day pops…" and tightened his hug on Haruka. The snickering came again, and the blonde tomboy looked around to see that two heads, one green haired and the other auburn, were peeking in through the living room door. The auburn haired one, belonging to Nodoka-san, sported a happy smile, while Setsuna was grinning like a madwoman, or one who is far too amused.

"Are you comfortable there, Haruka?" Setsuna asked, her grin growing larger if that was possible.

"Ack!" Haruka said again, her first instinct to push away from Ranma and jump to her feet. Her second one, however, was to relax back into the position she'd woken up in and enjoy it.

'No, bad mind. Very bad,' she scolded herself, however her pondering was interrupted a second later by a new voice.

"Ack!" Ranma squeaked, sounding remarkably like Haruka, and was suddenly on the other side of the room in a defensive stance and looking around frantically. Haruka, deprived of her support, thumped down onto her futon, which had somehow ended up next to Ranma's.

It was at this point that Setsuna cracked up.

-CM-

The four occupants of the house settled down for breakfast about half an hour later, though the occasional snicker could be heard from Setsuna and Nodoka was still smiling. That was, of course, until Ranma spoke up. "I've got to go see Ukyo today," he said, looking at Setsuna. "Could you help me find out where she is?"

Setsuna became serious quite quickly. "Ukyo, is that the girl who broke in here last night?" she asked, levelly.

"Yeah," Ranma said, before thinking of something. "Oh, with the rooms destroyed… I'm sorry about all of that damage." His head lowered. "I thought all of them were left back in Nerima. I guess you might want me to leave."

Setsuna shook her head. "The rooms can be repaired, and I knew of your friends and their habit of destroying property when I offered you the room. As for this Ukyo person, I may have to press charges against her for her actions."

"No!" Ranma said, his outburst even surprising himself. All three of the women at the table looked at him, surprised. "A lot of Ukyo's problems were caused by me. I didn't know any other way 'ta handle her, but it's still my fault. Getting her thrown in jail or somethin ain't right."

Setsuna looked contemplative for a moment, and then nodded her head slowly. Nodoka, who really didn't know much of what was going on other than the small glimpse of the battle she'd gotten last night, kept silent. Haruka on the other hand looked confused. "But I thought it was your father who engaged you to Ukyo and stole her cart, or whatever." She snorted. "Your parents were real pieces of work, you know that?"

No one but Setsuna noticed Nodoka's eye twitch at that remark.

"Yeah, it was pop who engaged us and everything, but when she showed up again, ready ta try and kill me, I was the one who made her think the engagement was valid again. There was also some… other stuff." He winced at that, thinking of the mess of the reversal jewel, and the secret sauce, and... He shook his head. "A lot of Ukyo's problems were caused by me, and I'm gunna try 'n even it up with her. It ain't family honor, I gave that up with my name, but it's personal."

Haruka still looked confused, but Setsuna and Nodoka nodded knowingly. It was at this point that the second of the two spoke up. "I know where Ukyo's new restaurant is, Ranma."

Ranma looked at Nodoka in astonishment. "Huh?"

"I found the shop a few hours before I found you," she explained. "Ukyo told me about her father's orders to hunt you down and told me that she was trying to avoid you." The woman grimaced. "I didn't tell you because I assumed that she would be successful."

"Wait," Ranma said, surprised. "Y'mean she really WAS ordered to kill me by her pop?" Then he looked down. "Now I really feel like a jerk," he muttered despondently. He looked at Nodoka. "If you can tell me where the place is, I'll go and see Ukyo later this morning."

The woman nodded. She wished two things at the moment. First, that she could help her son with this, and second, that she could get a hold of Genma again. Beating on him was a very good stress relief. Somewhere in Nerima, a man sneezed, causing him great pain as it jostled several healing, yet broken, bones.

"I'm going with you," Haruka said, causing Ranma to look at her in surprise. "Don't say it," she continued as she saw his mouth open. "I'm going."

Ranma saw the determined expression on her face, and sighed.

"Anyone else wanna come?" he asked, sarcastically. Nodoka was about to respond in the affirmative before she saw the glare he was leveling around the table at her and Setsuna. She thought that he should really be a bit more polite than that, but got the message.

-CM-

In an under-lit office, a man wearing round glasses looked over a list of names. "Hmm…" he muttered, finding everything to be in order. The light gleamed almost sinisterly on the rims of the glasses as he rummaged around in his desk for a pen, however it immediately stopped doing so as he saw a name near the bottom of the list. The reason for this was that the glasses had just fogged up.

"K... K... K... Kasumi?" he squeaked, before beginning to shred the paper.

Outside of the under-lit, due to maintenance problems, office of Dr. Ono Tofu, Professor of Alternative medicine at Infinity Academy, several people wondered at the sound of maniacal laughter.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: A Confrontation with a Friend and a Ninja's Heart

Ranma walked down the street, looking at the signs in the front windows of the stores as he walked past them and fidgeting.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Haruka, who was walking next to him, asked as she noticed his increasing sense of nervousness. "We could just let the police deal with this." Haruka herself wasn't a coward or anything of the sort, however she hadn't grown up or lived in Nerima. Normally, to any sensible person, the response to attempted murder was a swift phone call to the police.

"Look, I told you. I gotta do this my way," Ranma told her, stopping with his fidgeting and turning his head to look at her. "If you really want to press charges 'cuz she attacked you, do it when I'm finished… but I'd rather ya didn't."

The blonde looked at the determined look on her companion's face, and sighed. "Fine. Let's find this Ucchan's place."

"Actually, I think we walked right past it," Ranma said, pointing at a glass fronted restaurant with Ucchan's written across the front window in romaji. As he approached the door, he squared his shoulders and muttered something.

"What did you say?" Haruka asked, not sure if she had heard correctly.

"I said, Once more unto the breach," Ranma responded, smirking. "It seems like a good quote."

"I didn't think you liked old English plays," Haruka said, surprised.

Ranma grinned. "Occasionally Hinako-sensei actually managed to teach us something," he cracked, before becoming more serious and knocking on the door to the restaurant. It was Thursday, and therefore the place should have been open, but he supposed he understood why Ukyo wouldn't want to serve customers today.

A few seconds after Ranma's knock, a kimono-clad Konatsu came to the door and opened it, a large and ugly looking bruise quite visible on the side of his face.

"Hi Konatsu, is Ukyo awake?" Ranma asked, seeming not to take any notice of the Ninja's injury.

Haruka on the other hand, who hadn't seen Konatsu before and especially not beaten up, couldn't resist a whispered comment to Ranma. "What in the world happened to her?"

"Oh, this?" Konatsu asked, having heard Haruka's comment in spite of it's low volume. "I believe it was a rising spin kick, though Ranma-san hit me so quickly that I cannot be sure."

"Ranma scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as he looked at the ninja. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that Konatsu. I guess I hit you too hard."

The ninja shrugged. "I cannot say that I would have acted any differently if Ukyo-sama was endangered," he replied. "The injury should be gone in a couple of days. As for Ukyo-sama, she is up in her bedroom. She is expecting you."

Ranma began to head for the back of the shop where he could see a set of stairs leading to an upper level. Haruka was about to follow him when he turned around to face her. "Stay down here with Konatsu," he said, and as she was about to respond, continued. "I wanna talk to Ukyo alone."

Haruka slowly nodded, partially because she wanted to talk to this Konatsu person and find out precisely what would make Ranma hit a girl as hard as he had hit her, and why she was being so casual about it.

When the pigtailed boy had disappeared up the stairs to Ukyo's room, Konatsu started heading for a second exit from the main restaurant. "Hey, where are you going?" Haruka asked, as she followed.

"Ranma-san may have wished for privacy for his conversation with Ukyo-sama, however I feel it would be best if I monitored the situation to ensure that it doesn't become volatile."

Haruka was confused about the ninja girl's comment, until she followed her into a back room with a cot, a small box for clothing and a set of high quality surveillance equipment. She did a double take. Yep, the surveillance equipment was still there. "What the…" she gasped, as Konatsu sat down and picked up a headset.

"You aren't spying on their conversation, are you?" Haruka asked, not sure whether to be outraged or simply surprised.

In answer, Konatsu shoved a second set of headphones into her hands. "If you are quiet, you may listen as well."

Bemused, Haruka slipped the earphones over her ears. This was definitely not a very honest thing to do, but Ranma had been acting oddly since the attack the night before, and this Ukyo, from Ranma's stories about her, didn't seem the type to try and kill another person out of the blue.

She wanted answers, damn it, and she wasn't particularly picky about how she got them.

-CM-

Ranma opened the door to the small apartment above the new Ucchan's with a feeling of trepidation. He could admit, now, that the way he'd left Ukyo in Nerima, with one short and quick message, had been to avoid this exact confrontation. It'd been sure proof that Genma was his father.

Looking around the room on the other side of the door, the pigtailed martial artist was confronted with the sight of Ukyo sharpening a shuriken spatula with a small stone. "I hope that ain't for me," he said, causing her head to whip up. Her eyes were bloodshot, and it looked like she'd been crying for quite a while when she got home the night before.

The Okonomiyaki chef snorted. "I doubt I could hit you if I tried," she muttered, darkly.

"I found out that you weren't lying about your father sending you after me," Ranma replied, stepping further into the room and sitting on a chair next to the entrance. "What I don't get is why you went after Haruka rather than me."

"It doesn't matter, you stopped me anyways," Ukyo said in a dead seeming voice, as if she didn't care about anything.

"It does matter, Ukyo!" Ranma snapped, angrily. "Haruka was a non-combatant. You shouldn't have gotten her involved! Martial arts are to protect the weak, remember?"

Ukyo's face, which had previously sported an apathetic look, quickly twisted with rage. "Non-combatant? She took you from me! First It was Akane, and then her. I saw how you were hugging her on that date you two had on the weekend."

"Ukyo…" Ranma sighed, shaking his head. "Look. I know that when you first showed up and tried ta kill me, I stuck my foot in my mouth and managed to convince ya that the engagement could still work, but I thought you'd get it through yer head that I wasn't gunna marry you after I left my family, and Akane, just to get away from the engagements!"

"So that whole time…" Ukyo breathed. "It… You never…" Suddenly, the girl blurred into motion, chucking the spatula she had been sharpening at him. As she did this, she shouted "Bastard!" The spatula zinged through the air, slicing through Ranma's shirt at the collar and missing his pigtail in back by about half a centimeter. Ukyo gaped in shock as she saw a cut open up on the side of his neck. "You… you didn't dodge."

"No, I didn't," Ranma said, mentally breathing a sigh of relief. He wasn't completely sure that she had aimed that spatula badly.

'Note to self, don't do something that stupid again,' he thought. However it seemed to have impacted Ukyo profoundly. Reaching up to his neck, the martial artist felt a sharp stinging. However the cut was only deep enough to penetrate flesh, like a really big paper cut, for the most part.

"Yeah, I guess ya got a right ta be pissed at me for that," he said, as the girl just stared in shock at the hand that had just chucked the weapon.

Deciding to take advantage of her silence, Ranma continued. "Ya think that I was leading you on the whole time in Nerima. Hell, I guess I was, and I can't really apologize much for that. As pathetic as it sounds, I had a reason."

"A reason?" Ukyo asked, getting a bit of her speaking ability back. "What POSSIBLE reason could you have for doing that?" Her shock was giving way, and a healthy dose of anger was creeping back into her voice. As Akane had occasionally found, being angry was far easier than feeling guilty or sad, which were the only other two emotions prevalent in her mind at the moment.

"Look, I had a reason. At least let me tell ya before ya start screamin again. At least that way you'll be screamin for the right reasons," Ranma said with a small grin that faded quickly. "Y'know that Ryoga showed up in Nerima a few months before you did. You heard pretty much the whole story about him. Was my friend in junior High, then when I missed a fight that he was three days late for, he started huntin me down and ended up tryin to kill me for two years straight."

"What's this got to do with me?" Ukyo asked, evidently getting impatient.

"Well. Look, think about it. Ryoga used ta be my friend, then shows up hungry for blood. I barely remembered him from school, but it still kinda hurt ta have him trying to kill me, y'know? Then you show up, waving that big spatula around and challenging me to a fight."

Ukyo winced, recalling that particular fight. Some parts of it, such as Ranma's ripping open of her chest wrappings, were pretty damned embarrassing.

The pigtailed martial artist continued. "Anyways, We all found out 'bout the engagement mess, and I had two choices, as far as I could tell, by that point. I either acknowledge the engagement, or ya keep trying to kill me like Ryoga was." He shrugged. "I donno, maybe someone else coulda found some other way ta get out of it, but those were the only options I could see, and unlike Ryoga, I remembered you. You were my best friend. After pop grabbed me and started hauling me across Japan, ya were one of my happiest memories. Hell, I forgot about my mother completely, and I still remembered my buddy Ucchan. I guess I thought if I took the engagement, I could put it off 'till you found another guy ya liked."

Ukyo blinked, then blinked again. If it had been anyone but Ranma who had said that, while she was looking directly at his straight face, she would have found that story to be the biggest crock of bull she'd ever heard. Then again, all of this made a strange sort of sense.

She remembered all of the times that Ranma had somehow managed to get her paired up with Ryoga during group activities, and all the times he called her "buddy" and other names that weren't exactly meant for one's betrothed. She was still angry with him, yes, but all of this just made her start to laugh. It wasn't a very pleasant sounding laugh, though. Every once in a while, the words "Best friend" could be heard mixed in.

Ranma looked uncertain as Ukyo laughed, getting up from his seat and walking over to her. "Stupid, stupid Ranchan…" Ukyo said, before the laughter turned into a set of racking sobs.

"Erm, Ukyo," Ranma said, uncertainly, as he reached for the brown haired girl's shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled, swatting his hand away. He sighed and returned to his chair, letting Ukyo cry herself out. When the sobs died down, she muttered something quietly under her breath.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, not quite hearing.

"I said I won't try anything else against you. Not like I have a chance to begin with." After saying this, the chef looked directly into his eyes. "But I want you to know this, Ranma. All of the problems with us in Nerima weren't your fault, I know that. Even still, I don't think I'll see you again after this conversation."

Ranma nodded, grimacing. "Look, I know this has fucked up your life almost as bad as it did mine, but ya still have a restaurant and stuff. You'll be all right, right?"

Ukyo sighed. "You really shouldn't try and cheer people up, Ranma."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused.

"When I tell my father that I couldn't get rid of you," she explained, "I'm going to be cast out of my clan for causing dishonor. Then let's not forget that after you, I'm not likely to find a guy who's worth anything."

Ranma was surprised at both statements. He thought she was still angry at him, so what was with the compliment all of a sudden? "Well, I dono what to do about yer father. Ya could always get him to come here and try ta take me out himself." He smirked. "Guaranteed, I'd take 'im in five seconds."

Ukyo found herself smiling at Ranma's usual arrogant bravado, before stamping the expression down and replacing it with a neutral look.

"And as for guys, There's always Konatsu," Ranma said, not sounding at all like he was joking.

Ukyo snorted. What was Ranma trying to pull? "Konatsu?" she asked, incredulously. Ranma shrugged, as if to ask why not. "Konatsu's like a nicer, less pushy Tsubasa." At Ranma's uncomprehending look, she continued "Besides, he acts so much like a girl all the time, it's weird."

"This from the girl who wanted to marry the guy who changes gender with water," Ranma drawled, unsure how his casual comment meant to cheer Ukyo up somehow had ended up as a discussion of her love prospects. "Besides, he and Tsubasa kinda remind me of you and Shampoo. I mean, one's over-enthusiastic and pushy, and the other one just stands there and would practically do anythin for you. Well, I guess you and Shampoo before the wedding, at least…" He simply couldn't imagine Konatsu throwing bombs if he had married Ukyo.

"I seriously think you should leave now, before I change my mind about blaming you for things," Ukyo said, half jokingly, her hand twitching for her battle spatula.

"O... Okay." Ranma said, looking nervous. "But ya know where ta find me if ya change your mind about not talkin ta me again," he said, before leaving the room and shutting the door. "What the hell just happened?" he muttered, walking down the stairs.

-CM-

Haruka took off the headphones, feeling at once intensely confused and like she'd heard something she really shouldn't have. She'd known that Ranma's life had been a mess, but this was just insane. To her right she saw the girl, or rather from what she'd just heard and careful observation, the boy clutching one of his headphones while a stream of tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Are… you all right?" she asked, slowly. It was a stupid question, she knew, but she had to ask.

"Just… like Tsubasa?" Konatsu breathed, not responding to Haruka's question.

Unsure of what to do, the blonde patted him on the shoulder, trying to comfort him before she heard the sounds of Ranma's feet tromping down the last few steps into the restaurant. One thing was for sure, she DID NOT want him to find her sitting here with a bunch of listening equipment. In fact, she felt pretty lousy for using it to listen to the conversation in the first place.

"I… have to go, sorry," she said, standing and setting her headphones on the top of the device. Konatsu merely nodded, not paying attention.

As Haruka exited Konatsu's small storeroom, she saw Ranma standing there and looking confused. "What happened?" she asked, playing dumb.

"I'm not really sure," Ranma responded. "C'mon, I don't think Ukyo wants me hangin around here."

"Did you get things straightened out with her so that she won't attack me in my sleep?" Haruka asked, as the two exited the building.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're getting out of the extra training," Ranma said, his usual good mood returning slowly as he distanced himself from Ucchan's. He looked back once before the two turned around a corner, obscuring the shop from view.

After the two were out of sight, a third figure exited from the front door of Ucchan's. It looked inside briefly and then walked down the street.

-CM-

Ukyo left the apartment above Ucchan's, walking down the stairs and into the main room. She grimaced as she saw the mess the room was in, a remnant of her adventure the night before when she had neglected to clean up after closing. She grabbed a mop to start cleaning the floor, and then called for Konatsu to give her a hand.

"Konatsu, where are you?" she muttered, as he didn't come to her after about a minute. she leaned the mop against the counter and went to Konatsu's room.

"Konatsu, why didn't you answer?" she asked, as she opened the door. Seeing the room's contents, her hands dropped to her sides in astonishment.

His cot was gone, along with his box of clothes. "Konatsu?" she asked, not believing what she saw. Where the bed was before was a small note. It said that Konatsu had gone on a training trip and would be back soon. That didn't make sense. He never left without asking, or at least telling her beforehand. Usually it was almost a day in advance.

As she looked around the room again, she saw the listening equipment leaning against a wall, one pair of headphones laying on the corner. Nabiki had given Konatsu her old surveillance system after upgrading it at the Dojo. Apparently she owed him a favor. To Ukyo, the fact that she had a surveillance system in the Dojo was a bit scary, but she really didn't care too much. Konatsu usually used the device to listen at the windows for intruders, some sort of paranoid ninja thing. This time, however, he had obviously heard something much different.

"Oh Konatsu…" she said, sighing. He would be back soon, she hoped.

-CM-

In the streets of Juuban later that night, Konatsu let off a massive sneeze. He was beginning to see why Ranma disliked rain so much. He hadn't put much thought into his packing when he left Ukyo-sama's restaurant, and didn't have an umbrella. Add to that the Kimono he was wearing, which absorbed water rather readily, and he was one cold Kunoichi.

He wasn't really leaving Ukyo-sama, at least not permanently. He was her servant, after all. Even so, what she'd said to Ranma disturbed him. He had met Tsubasa Kurenai. He was a repulsive little hyper-active pervert. The idea of being even loosely compared to that pink… thing… was pretty disturbing, and by Ukyo-sama, no less. If she saw him that way, no wonder she didn't love him. He had to somehow find a way to make Ukyo-sama see him more as himself, as the person who loved her and would do anything for her.

At that moment he let off yet another sneeze. Well, right now he'd settle for some shelter.

As if in answer to his thought, Konatsu found himself in front of the steps to a large Shinto shrine. He'd heard somewhere that the keepers of shrines occasionally let travelers stay for a night. It was worth a try, especially since he would freeze from the cold if he didn't get inside soon.

It took him a while to get up the stairs. However when he did, he quickly made his way to the front door and knocked. The response was a long time in coming, and he was about to knock again when the door opened. "Hello," said a short old man, a bit taller than Happosai and Cologne, as he surveyed the dripping Kunoichi in the doorway. "Can I help you?"

"I… I was wondering if you would allow me to stay the night," Konatsu asked, as concisely as he could with chattering teeth.

The old man looked his visitor over. Despite the clothing, his old eyes picked out the signs that Konatsu was a boy. 'Oh well, this one isn't a shrine maiden,' he thought, but seeing the boy shivering he made a quick decision. "Yes, you can stay the night. Now come on in and we'll get you dried off."

"Thank you, priest-san," Konatsu said, entering the shrine.

"None of that now, call me grandpa!" the old man said, as the door slid shut, sealing out the weather.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Here's… Konatsu? Wait, that's not right.

Rei Hino was not a morning person. She wasn't grumpy in the mornings, or at least not unless Usagi showed up, but she wasn't particularly coherent. This was why when she stumbled into the Shrine's living room that morning, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Slumping down at the table, she waited until someone placed a bowl and a cup in front of her.

"Thanks Grandpa," she automatically said, sipping the glass of juice that had just been placed.

"You're welcome, but I believe you're thanking the wrong person," Rei's grandfather said, from across the table.

"Hmm?" Rei asked, looking up and blinking her eyes clear of sleep to see a girl standing next to her, having just placed her food down. She was wearing a set of the clothes Rei usually wore while tending the shrine, a White Kimono and Red Hakama, and began to blush and look down as Rei looked at her. As the girl's face colored red, Rei noticed a bruise on one side. It looked pretty old, but it had evidently been large.

"Oh, hello," Rei said, lamely. "My name's Rei. Erm, glad to meet you." She had just spent about a minute ignoring this girl. She probably thought she was pretty rude.

"I am Konatsu. Greetings, Rei-san," the girl said, bowing deeply.

"Konatsu-san is staying with us for a while," Rei's grandfather interjected, trying to loosen the accidental tension. "He will be helping me maintain the grounds until he finds another place to go."

"What am I, chopped liver?" Yuuichiro asked, as he walked into the room from taking out the trash.

"No, you're just lazy!" Rei's grandfather said, happily. Yuuichiro just groaned.

Somewhere in her mind, Rei noticed that her grandfather had referred to Konatsu as he, but then dismissed it as the old man just acting strange, as usual. Judging from the bruise on her cheek and the docile and quiet way she spoke, Konatsu was probably a woman who had been beaten up on the street or something and, true to form as the priest of a shrine, her grandpa was offering her help.

"It'll be good to have someone other than Yuuichiro around to talk to," Rei said brightly. The aforementioned wanna be rock star keeled over in the background, pretending to be grievously injured. Rei and Konatsu both laughed at that.

-CM-

Later that day, Rei hummed softly as she moved through the chores of cleaning the fire room. She or her grandfather were the only ones who were allowed to maintain the fire, and Konatsu and Yuuichiro were both busy in other parts of the shrine. Thinking about Konatsu, she had to smile slightly. The girl had been a big help all day, and was definitely earning her keep. She was amazingly acrobatic and had actually leapt up to the ceilings of many of the rooms to clean them. When she had asked how she did that, the quiet girl had only said something about ninja arts. Rei had laughed, thinking she was joking, but Konatsu kept her face so straight that she wasn't sure.

After clearing away a large amount of charred wood from the base of the perpetually burning fire in the middle of the room, Rei brushed off her hands and coughed. While she loved her job as a priestess most of the time, there were parts of it that she could definitely do without. This was one of them.

"Ugh, I need a bath," she muttered, seeing that a collection of soot stains spread up both of her arms.

As she came to the bathroom, Rei noticed that the occupied sign was put up, but peaked in anyways. The only thing in the dirty clothes hamper was a copy of her own clothing, which meant Konatsu was the one in the bath. She had always liked company in the furo and had occasionally gone to bath houses with the other Senshi.

Deciding that she'd join the shrine's new tenant, the black haired girl entered the bathroom and began to disrobe.

-CM-

Sitting in a nice, hot bath, Konatsu let himself relax. This luxury was pure heaven. Ucchan's, even the new one, didn't really have room for a proper furo, only a western style shower stall. He couldn't believe that Hino-san, the old shrine priest, could be such a nice person as to let him stay. He was almost as generous as Ukyo-sama.

The effeminate boy winced. He'd done it again. He really didn't want to think of Ukyo-sama at the moment, at least not until he had time to sort out the problem of trying to get her to see him as more than a "Kinder, less pushy Tsubasa." Granted, she did say two compliments before the insult, but still, he knew what she meant.

She could never love Tsubasa, and therefore she could never love him.

Sinking back into the bath water with an only marginally contented sigh, the male Kunoichi heard the sound of someone standing in the outer room, moving around. Who was there? It was probably Hino-san. But, what if it wasn't? That Yuuichiro boy would be alright as well. In Konatsu's opinion, he deserved a shock after spending a decent part of the day ogling him.

But, what if it was Rei-san? He had heard what happened to boys when girls walked in on them; Ranma had told him during a visit to Ucchan's one day. They got statues smashed over their heads!

He'd better hide, just in case it was Rei, and then sneak out past her. Looking around, the ninja quickly discovered that the bathroom was painted completely white, and there were no convenient crannies to wedge himself in. A quick glance at the window showed that it was one of the type that is just a pane of glass inset into the wall, and besides that, he didn't want to go running around outside nude. Sighing, he decided just to do what he should have thought of from the beginning, and ask who was there.

During his scanning of the room, Konatsu had risen part way out of the bath tub, and as he opened his mouth to ask who was there, his time ran out. The door opened, and Rei marched in with a towel held in front of her. 'Too late!' came the thought, running through Konatsu's head as he and Rei stared at each other for a moment. Distantly, his mind noted that she wasn't nearly as attractive as Ukyo-sama, but she was also almost three years younger, so it should probably be expected.

Seeing no way out of his situation, Konatsu employed another thing that Ranma had told him about. Ranma, as a, sometimes overly, proud martial artist had regarded this technique with a large amount of scorn. For the relatively self-effacing Konatsu however, it seemed the perfect move to use in this situation.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" the ninja cried, bowing rapidly while at the same time covering his groin And clenching his eyes shut. It was an impressive display of the Crouch of the Wild Tiger that made Genma Saotome look like an amateur.

Rei just stood there, confused. There was a nude boy in her bath tub, but it wasn't her grandfather or Yuuichiro. Also, he looked oddly familiar. She caught herself blushing. He was also kinda cute, if a bit too skinny and delicate. What was she thinking? This guy had broken into her house's bathroom, for some reason… and where was Konatsu? That was when the boy began frantically bowing and saying "I'm sorry," over and over again. His voice was familiar, in fact it was the same as Konatsu's, and the next time he stood from one of his bows, she saw the prominent bruise on one cheek.

"Konatsu?" she asked, faintly.

"Yes, Rei-san?" the boy asked, tentatively, his eyes still closed. Where was the impending doom?

"Please leave now," Rei continued, flatly.

"Yes, Rei-san," Konatsu said, quickly edging past her and out the door. The Senshi of Mars let out a short, sharp breath. She had really wanted to smack him into next Tuesday, but somehow she couldn't do it with him bowing and apologizing like that. One thing was for sure, though. She was going to have a LONG talk with him when she was done her bath.

-CM-

Shampoo stood on the deck of a rocking fishing boat, staring back at the shores of Japan as they gradually receded. She had failed. Her Airen had somehow managed to escape her, but she wasn't giving up. She would be back, with assistance. The other tribal elders wouldn't be nearly as easy to deter as her great-grandmother. The thought that the old woman had been intimidated by a single declaration from Ranma made her furious.

She had seen him fight, had seen him kill Saffron. He was a magnificent warrior, outflanking the phoenix king at every turn, even if it was only by a small margin. He was the best martial artist of the outside world, and she was the best of the Amazon tribe. She would have him, come hell or high water.

Narrowing her eyes, she spoke his name. "Ra... Meow!" The purple haired cat lay sputtering on the deck, hissing at the water below.

-CM-

Rei stepped out of the bathroom, drying her hair and grabbing the extra set of clothes that she'd laid out before she entered. She noted that Konatsu's clothes were gone from the dirty clothes basket. 'He must have forgotten to bring clean ones in,' she thought, before realizing that Konatsu was, in fact, a he and wearing priestess robes. As the black haired girl left the bathroom, she saw her grandfather walking up the hall towards her.

"Grandpa, I want to talk to you!" she snapped, causing the old man to look at her, surprised.

"Is there something wrong, Rei?" the old man asked, calmly. He had a suspicion what this would be about.

"Why didn't you tell me Konatsu was a boy?" the fire Senshi asked, deciding to be direct.

"I did," the old man replied, and continued when his granddaughter looked at him flatly. "Didn't you notice me referring to him as a boy every time I talked about him?"

"I… I…" Rei stammered, then blushed. She had noticed, but hadn't really thought about it. "All right, then tell me why you gave him some of my clothes, that's pretty weird," she finally said, her temper, which she hadn't quite been able to bring herself to unleash against the frantically apologizing Konatsu earlier, finally beginning to boil up.

The old man sighed, and turned serious. Most of the time he was a pretty carefree individual, much to Rei's annoyance, but when he became serious she listened. "Rei, at a Shinto shrine, we have to help anyone in need. He was soaked, and so were his clothes."

Rei sighed in exasperation. "I didn't ask why you gave him clothes, I asked why you gave him GIRLS clothes!"

"Did you notice how comfortable he was in them? You didn't even notice he was a boy. Last night he showed up in a women's Kimono, and it took me a second look to figure out that he was a boy. This morning, I left a set of Yuuichiro's clothes and a set of yours in his room." He shrugged. "He chose yours. He's a perfectly nice person from what I can tell of him, regardless."

"But… the bath…" Rei sputtered, somehow thinking that she was losing an argument.

"Yes, you walked in on him in the bath. He really shouldn't be forgiven for that," her grandfather said with pure sarcasm, chuckling.

Rei sighed. "I really shouldn't be mad, should I?" she asked, sullenly.

"Nope," Mr. Hino said, walking down the hall and whistling merrily.

"Grandpa…" Rei sighed, before heading for the living room, where Konatsu was sitting demurely. It was strange. In her clothes it was really hard to tell that he was a boy. Now that she knew she could see the signs, but still. "Hello Konatsu," Rei said, sitting across the table from him.

"Hello Rei-san. Are you going to hit me over the head with the statue now?" Konatsu asked, looking nervous.

"Am I going to do what?" Rei asked, astonished.

"Well, Ranma-san told me that when his fiancée accidentally walked in on him in a bath once, she hit him over the head with a statue," Konatsu said, blushing.

Belatedly, he remembered that Ranma had also said something about having compared his cursed form's bust size to Akane's. Silently, he resolved that he wouldn't mention that he thought Ukyo-sama was better built than Rei-san… ever. No need to dare fate into doing something harsh.

Rei laughed. "I think this Ranma person was playing a joke on you, Konatsu."

"You've never met Ranma-san," Konatsu said, deadpan.

"Okay then, tell me about him," Rei said, chuckling. 'Grandpa was right,' she thought, 'Konatsu may be a little strange, but he's nice enough… though if something like this happens again I may go looking for a statue.'

Konatsu began to tell Rei the little bit he knew about Ranma, skipping the curse, of course. From there, the subject changed to Ukyo and eventually to why he had been wandering around in a rainstorm the night before.

Rei knew that Minako and Makoto would have been cooing over how romantic Konatsu's quest to impress Ukyo was. Well, Minako would. Makoto had been acting a little strange lately. Rei herself, however, found it a little stupid. Fortunately she had the good sense not to say so.

"Rei-chan," came her grandfather's call from the living room door. "Did you forget about your chores?" The shrine maiden looked up at the clock on one wall and found that she'd been talking to Konatsu and listening to his stories about his Ukyo-sama for a solid two hours. "Oh, right. Sorry grandpa!" she said, jumping up from the floor.

"I will help," Konatsu offered, joining her. The old man smiled, and winked at his granddaughter. Rei blushed and growled at him.

He just laughed.

-CM-

He was in pain. His nerves were on fire, but there was a cool and pleasant feeling on his forehead, and he could sense a steady stream of chi flowing into his body from some external source. "Wh… what happened?" he croaked, trying to crack his eyes open.

"Shhhh," came the voice of a woman, from above him. "Just rest."

He, being a stubborn person, forced himself up to a sitting position and cracked his eyes open again. "What happened?" he asked again, in a slightly stronger voice.

"That's what I wanted to ask you, Happi," came the woman's voice, which belonged to an elderly white haired woman sitting on a high stool next to the bed.

"Co-chan?" Happosai asked, surprised. "You nursed me back to health? Why?"

"Don't ask me, pervert," the old woman said, before reaching into her robe and pulling something out. "Getting this wasn't easy or pleasant," she continued, tossing the object to him. He looked at it, and then jumped away like it was burning.

"Get that away from me!" Happosai cried, cowering in a corner of the bed. The only thing he could think about was the last two times he'd glomped a girl.

"What?" Cologne asked, her already far too large eyes popping wider.

"No, I'll never steal a panty again, I promise! Just get it away!" he yelped, looking positively terrified.

"Did the old pervert just say what I think he did?" asked Mousse, who was closing down the restaurant before he heard this unusual statement.

"It appears that he did…" Cologne replied, astonished. Though she didn't like to admit it, she was worried about Happosai. His Chi seemed to be draining more slowly than it should, but he still needed a recharge every once in a while or he would begin to sicken within a week.

"Happi, what in the world happened to you?"

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Pervs and Strings.

Ranma woke again feeling comfortably warm, cuddling a soft pillow. "Oh no, not again." she thought, but the thought wasn't nearly as resigned and negative as she thought it properly should be.

This morning was the fourth morning in a row that she, or in the first three cases he, had woken up in the position that she occupied now. That position being cuddled up against Haruka and using her as a giant teddy bear. She'd thought that putting the coffee table between them last night would have stopped it. Looking around she sighed in exasperation as she saw that she'd somehow rolled under it, knocking a glass of water that had been accidentally left there the night before off onto herself.

"What's the matter Ranma, aren't you comfortable?" Haruka, who had probably been awakened by the pigtailed martial artist's movement, asked as she yawned.

Ranma blushed. Haruka's reactions made this about five times more embarrassing. The first two times it had happened she'd been as shy as he about the whole thing, but yesterday she'd started joining Setsuna in the ranks of the suggestive comment throwers.

Ranma just got up, grabbing a set of clothes and leaving the room. The blonde just sighed in pseudo-disappointment and got up herself. Truthfully, she'd been just as embarrassed as Ranma, but she had to admit that this was a really enjoyable way to wake up. Too bad their rooms were going to be repaired today.

-CM-

About twenty minutes later, the four occupants of the house were sitting around a table eating breakfast when Setsuna started her first salvo. "So, did it happen again?" she asked, already knowing the answer from the remnants of a blush that were on the now male Ranma's face. Haruka and Ranma both nodded. The older woman clucked her tongue in seeming disapproval.

"Hmm," she mumbled as she brought her cup of tea up to her lips. After taking a sip, she spoke. "Perhaps we should have ordered a double bed rather than the two singles?"

Ranma choked on a slice of the sushi he was eating, and Haruka reached over to pat him on the back and dislodge it.

It was at this point that Nodoka spoke for the first time in the morning. "Oh, I don't think that would be proper until they are married, would it Setsuna-san?" It was at this point that Haruka spat her glass of water across the table, the flying liquid missing Ranma for once.

The pigtailed martial artist himself just did a double take. Had that been his mother who'd just said that? "Aunt Nodoka, are you feeling alright?" he asked, uncertainly.

"Oh, I'm fine Ranma, why?" Nodoka asked, curiously.

"Erm, it's nothing." Ranma responded, noticing that the woman was hiding a grin behind her cup, evidently at Haruka's reaction.

-CM-

Kasumi hummed merrily as she set the last plate down on the table and sat to eat.

"Thanks, Kasumi-chan," Unazuki Furuhata, the younger of the two Furuhata children, said as she picked up a forkful of the western style eggs the eldest Tendo had made.

"Yeah, this is good," her older brother, Motoki, said as he finished a bite of his own.

The eldest Tendo daughter blushed. She was used to people just taking her food for granted most of the time and scarfing it down. Granted, Ranma was usually really grateful for it but somehow she thought that if you gave Ranma a piece of shoe leather he'd start eating it, and probably enjoy it. The image of Ranma taking a set of chopsticks to a pair of shoes caused her to giggle slightly.

"What is it, Kasumi?" Motoki asked.

"Oh, nothing," Kasumi returned, starting on her own meal.

It'd been a week since she had arrived in Juuban, and school was starting tomorrow. So far she'd been doing pretty well what she'd done at home, even if on a grander scale, in the restaurant. Tomorrow though, she was going to start school again. It was college rather than high school, but that made her even more nervous.

"I'm going to go enjoy my day off," Unazuki said, as she pushed her plate away. "Thanks a lot for breakfast."

Kasumi nodded and then quickly went to get a second plate of bacon and eggs for Motoki. It was about three minutes later when the two heard the scream.

-CM-

He had been searching constantly ever since his arrival in this god forsaken ward, and still nothing. The foul sorcerer had hidden her well, truly. He missed his Akane-chan terribly, but he had to find the pigtailed girl, or Saotome.

If he found his other love perhaps she would be free of the sorcerer's enchantment. If the latter, he could finish what he had started during his climactic battle. He couldn't really remember the battle, but he must have had it. After all, the insidious fiend had run from him. Perhaps he'd finally been overwhelmed by the might of Kuno from a distance, and run without the fight. Yes, that must have been it.

The blue thunder's eyes caught on a flash of red in the road in front of him. He quickly fixed his attention on it. That… monster! How could he have done this? "Pigtailed girl!" He yelled, running towards the girl. The red haired girl turned, surprised, to see Kuno charging at her. She backed up, a scared look crossing her face.

"Oh, what a wondrous day 'tis today!" Kuno cried, embracing the girl. "Though the foul sorcerer doth disguise you and lessen your feminine attributes, still the blue thunder recognizes the inner beauty of his true love!"

"What are you talking about?" the girl screamed, as she was hoisted up into his arms. "And what do you mean 'lessen my feminine attributes?'" Somehow, she thought she'd just been insulted.

"Surely you noticed, the sorcerer has decreased your breast size dramatically, and your posterior…" Kuno stopped as he had an elbow jabbed into his head.

"I get the point, now let me GO!" the girl shouted, at the top of her lungs.

"But pigtailed girl, surely you wish me to rescue you?" Kuno asked, confused. "Do not tell me that Saotome has brainwashed you further!"

"Ahem..." came another voice, from the entrance of the arcade that the girl had come out of. Kuno turned around to see a blonde haired boy in a uniform from the arcade, and a brown haired girl who he recognized.

"Tendo-san, did Saotome kidnap you as well?" he asked, looking confused.

"Kidnap?" Kasumi asked, looking at Kuno strangely.

"The sorcerer, he kidnapped the pigtailed girl, and now he must have taken you as well!" Kuno explained, seeming to have come to an inspired conclusion.

Kasumi began to see what Kuno was talking about, and frowned. When she was in Nerima, she had thought of Kuno as one of Akane and Ranma's friends, and let them deal with his odd behavior, not that she could really stop him from it, but he had just accosted an innocent girl who he didn't even know. "Kuno-san, Ranma-kun did not kidnap me or the pigtailed girl."

"But, then why are you here, and why is the pigtailed girl not embracing me as is her true desire?" Kuno asked, blinking at Kasumi like a fascinated cow.

"This is not the pigtailed girl, Kuno. She doesn't even look anything like her," Kasumi said, her frown now getting deeper. Now, other people could actually see it. "You just ran up and hugged a total stranger. That wasn't very appropriate."

"But Tendo-san, Saotome disguised the pigtailed girl so that I could not find her!" Kuno said, noticing the frown.

"I can assure you that I haven't seen Ranma-kun or the pigtailed girl in a long time," Kasumi retorted, then tilted her head to the side. "You don't think I would lie about that, do you?"

"N… No, of course not! I know that thou art the pinnacle of honesty and virtue, Tendo-san," Kuno said, assuredly. "If you say that this is not the pigtailed girl, then it must be true. I shall search for her elsewhere."

The Kendoist turned around to walk off, but was stopped by Kasumi's cleared throat. "I believe you have something to say to Unazuki-chan."

Kuno stopped, his back stiffened, and he turned. "I humbly apologize, Unazuki-san," he said, although it sounded like it was being dragged out of him with a horse and chain.

"It's all right, accidents happen," Unazuki said, more confused than she'd been in her entire life.

After Kuno stalked out of earshot, the girl and her brother both looked at Kasumi. Motoki was the first to speak up. "What just happened?" he asked, faintly.

"Oh, that was just Kuno-san. He shouldn't bother Unazuki-chan anymore," Kasumi said, turning to leave and enter the building. Unazuki followed to try and get a better explanation, while her brother shrugged and entered the arcade to begin cleaning it for the next week.

-CM-

Ranma walked down the street, heading for the Peking Duck. He'd promised to pay Mousse back for his accidental shot at Haruka in a week, and it was now Sunday. He wasn't really going to beat him up, but a good spar would be nice, especially since he'd quit his job a few days ago in order to start school, and was bored out of his mind.

As the martial artist pushed open the door to the Peking Duck, he saw that no one was in the main room. Proceeding to the room in the back, he stopped and blinked several times. After taking in the sight inside for a few seconds, only one thing came to mind, and deciding that it was better than gaping, he spoke.

"What the?" he wondered.

The thing that had caused this reaction in Ranma was that Cologne was standing in the middle of the room, Happosai sitting on the bed and looking at her wearily. The old woman was holding a pair of panties, and stepped towards the letch slowly. He flinched at every step. Mousse was sitting in a chair near the door, looking on in a combination of bemusement and amusement.

When Ranma's comment broke the silence, the old man jumped into the air. Cologne sighed. "Now we have to start all over again," she grumbled, annoyed.

-CM-

A few minutes later and after another failed attempt at… whatever she was doing, Cologne exited the back room and sat down at a table in the restaurant. "So," Ranma said as he slipped in on the other side. "Ya wanna tell me what you were doin in there?"

"You remember when we found Happi beaten up last week?" Cologne asked, sipping at a cup of herbal tea. At Ranma's nod, she continued. "Well, when he woke up he claimed that the last two times he tried to absorb women's life energy, but he absorbed magic into his chi veins, which acts like food going down the wind pipe, not a pleasant feeling, except it burns the chi veins."

"But, isn't that a good thing?" Ranma asked, wondering what the problem with this was.

She motioned for Ranma to come to the back, "It would be, except Happi relies on female life force to live. I've been supplementing his reserves for the last week, but it's been draining me and I won't be able to keep going for long," Cologne explained. As the old woman spoke, Ranma noticed that she looked a bit run down.

When they entered Happosai's room again, Happosai was cowering in the far corner of his bed looking visibly weaker than before. Cologne pointed to the pair of panties that she had been trying to get to Happosai. "The idiot was too hurried to absorb the female chi, that he completely neglected to do a precurser scan for magic, and as a result he has burnt his chi veins with magic."

Happosai perked up after Cologne's explanation and snatched the pair of panties from her hands to examine the piece of garment for himself.

As Happosai was scanning the garment, he saw a glimpse of something in the corner of his eye, and it was coming from Ranma? 'Not to the extent that the piece of garment was emanating, but a little spark. I will need to ask about that later.'

"Ah ha!" Happi exclaimed when he was finished with his scan, "I am such an idiot for not scanning it and assumed it was something else altogether! Why didn't you say so the first time?"

"Because I thought being able to survive almost 300 years, that you would be smart enough to do a pre-curser scan before draining, or at least smart enough be able to detect elemental magic coming off of this garment in waves!" exclaimed Cologne exasperated

Happi ignored Cologne's dig, and rubbed the piece of undergarment against his face. His countenance improving gradually, "Oh how I have missed you, my lovelies" repeated like a mantra.

Thinking this was not a good time to ask Cologne about the elemental magic, Ranma dragged Mousse off to get his payback, with an almost maniacal grin. The preceding fight, read beating, was too bloody to be described.

-CM-

Ranma looked up at the large black mass of the Infinity Academy, wondering what he was thinking when he signed up to go there. It was a forty or fifty story building and looked more like an office complex than anything else.

"You're nervous?" Haruka asked, from her place beside him. She wore the school's male school uniform, a white shirt and blue pants, while he wore his traditional clothing, thanks to a special allowance in the rules that Setsuna had arranged.

"I ain't nervous!" Ranma shot back, bringing a chuckle from Haruka.

"All right then, come on," Haruka said, as she headed for the front door. Ranma nodded and quickly followed.

As they entered the front hall of the building, the two noticed that there were many people rushing through, from children that looked as young as six or seven to old men wearing lab coats.

"What's with the kids?" Ranma asked, curiously.

"They apparently maintain a small primary and Junior high school complex for employees' children," Haruka explained, shrugging. "Didn't you read the information they sent?"

Ranma looked sheepish and the blonde sighed in exasperation over his lack of preperation as she dragged him towards a wall lined with desks that vaguely resembled the one at a bank. When their turn came, Haruka quickly gave her name and was handed a set of papers and a school identification card.

Of course, when Ranma gave his name, there were problems. "Just Ranma?" the secretary asked, waiting for a last name.

Ranma felt close to groaning. Having his Ronin status being dragged out and thrown into his face to remind him of everything that had happened was the last thing he needed today. He wondered what to say, feeling actually ashamed of his status, when his rescue came from from the next booth.

"Just search the name, Eiko. There can't be too many Ranmas in the database," came the voice of another secretary from the next booth. Eiko nodded and typed the name in.

"Ah, here we go. Ranma Meiou," she said, handing him a similar set of papers to that of Haruka, as well as two ID cards. "Remember to give the other card to your sister," she said, consulting the notes on his computer file.

"My sister?" Ranma asked, his mind still frozen over the last name in the records.

"Yes, it says here that she may need access to the campus to hand in work and take notes when you're sick," the secretary said, and smirked. "Nice girl, doing that for her brother."

"Yeah…" Ranma absently said, before walking away from the desk. He quickly checked the cards, and found that one had his information on it, the only strange item being the last name. The other card was a visitor's pass, for a "Ranko Meiou," and had his cursed form recorded as his sister, who was a year younger than he was. "Setsuna's startin to scare me," he muttered, handing Haruka the papers.

The blonde looked over the two IDs and whistled. "I didn't even think you could do that," she said in awe, handing them back. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you can't. I wonder how many strings she pulled to do that?"

"I'll have to ask her about it when we get home," Ranma responded, then looked down at his class schedule. "Looks like I've got Japanese in five minutes."

"Crap, I'm going to English. Well, I didn't think we'd share any classes," Haruka said, checking her own schedule. "I'll see you at lunch."

Ranma nodded, before the two parted ways.

-CM-

Ranma checked his schedule again, double checking. Yes, it still said it. He apparently had Music as a fine arts credit at the end of every Monday. All of his other classes today had been alright, especially since the teachers hadn't actually taught anything during the first day, but he had his doubts about music. He'd had an interest in listening to good music as a kid, but Genma had forbidden it, saying it would make him weak.

Normally this by itself would make him want to try out music class, but he thought that for once Genma could have been right. He couldn't think of anything to associate music with the martial arts, or anything else he was interested in. The few time music had been involved in his adventures -he still shuddered at the ballroom dancing- he wanted to forget.

Shrugging, he opened the door to the room and entered a cacophony of musicians of various levels, all warming up. He wanted to clamp his hands over his ears and run out, but the noise gradually thinned out as his ears adapted. The teacher of the class walked up to him with a clipboard in her right hand.

"Your name please?" she asked, raising her voice slightly above the noise.

"Ranma!" Ranma called back, doing the same.

She quickly checked her list and found his name, checking it off. "I see you don't have an instrument selected. If you have a preference, please go to the storage room and get one," she explained, before walking off.

Ranma was at a loss for what to do until he noticed a set of double doors with a sign on them that said "Instrument storage." Thinking this was where he had to go, he quickly entered and sighed in relief as he realized that the room was soundproof. Along the walls, there were various randomly sized cases that he assumed contained instruments. Not sure which one to grab, he tried a method that he hadn't used to make a decision since he was a kid. He closed his eyes and pointed randomly.

Following the finger, he found a case that was vaguely guitar shaped, but smaller. Opening it up, he found a violin, plus it's bow.

"If you're new and trying to pick an instrument, I wouldn't use that if I were you."

Ranma spun to face the voice that had surprised him, seeing a short, non-descript brown-haired girl in the Academy's girl's uniform. "Huh, who are you?"

"I'm Midori. I was just coming in to get my trombone." The girl explained, picking up a case. "Anyways, the violin is a hard instrument to learn. Novices shouldn't try it."

"Why not?" Ranma asked, his martial arts challenge senses tingling.

"Like I said, it's hard to play." The girl continued, shrugging.

"How about I try?" he asked, smirking, as he extracted the instrument and held it up, trying to push the bow along it.

The girl sighed in exasperation, walked over and took it from him. "You hold it like this," she patiently explained, putting the base of the instrument under her chin and holding the bow as if to rub it over the strings.

"Thanks," Ranma said when the girl handed the violin back, and copied her stance. Bringing the bow down, he pulled it across the strings and something seemed to well up from inside of his mind. He angled it carefully, and managed to produce one long, sustained and perfectly played note.

The girl's eyes widened. "Are you sure you haven't played one of those before?" she asked in surprise. At Ranma's shake of the head, she continued "It takes a few tries at least to even get that far with one of those. Maybe you should keep practicing with that."

Ranma shrugged, carrying the violin out of the instrument storage room and into the maelstrom.

-CM-

On the way home from school, Haruka kept shooting curious glances over at Ranma. The main reason for this was the fact that he appeared to have a violin case tied to his pack. "Hey Ranma, I didn't think you were a music lover. Why the violin?" she finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Apparently if ya pay for the music course, ya can take pretty well anything but a drum set or piano to use." Ranma explained.

Haruka sighed. "But a violin?"

Ranma shrugged. "It seemed natural."

Haruka just left it at that. Ranma was just strange sometimes. Realizing what she'd just thought, she wondered if she could possibly make a larger understatement.

-CM-

In the study of an opulent English style house, a large brown haired man sat reading a newspaper. The telephone next to his chair rang, and he immediately answered it. "Hello?" He listened for a few seconds, and then began to look excited. "You found her, where? How did she get there?" he sighed. Sometimes, his daughter even surprised him. "I understand. Thank you," he said, before hanging up the phone.

Hiroki Tenoh got up from his plush office chair, and went to find his wife. They had found their daughter.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Parental and Marriage Obligations of the Third Kind.

Ranma and Haruka walked into Setsuna's house, noticing that the other two residents' shoes were sitting neatly by the entrance. "We're home!" Ranma called and heard Nodoka's distant return of "Welcome home!" from the kitchen. Haruka, who had actually been in a physical education class today and was, for once, more hungry than Ranma, immediately headed for the voice, while the pigtailed martial artist headed for the living room.

Setsuna was there, reclining on the couch and using a remote control to flick through television channels. When Ranma looked to see what she was looking through, he saw a collection of local news stations and stock reports. "Looks exciting," he commented sarcastically, as he sat in the chair that the older woman had occupied when she had first met them in this house.

"It is," Setsuna said, glancing over at Ranma. As her eyes settled on the item he had slung over his backpack, the eyebrows rose. "A violin?" she asked, though she didn't sound quite the same as Haruka had when she asked the question.

"Aw, c'mon. I had to pick somethin for music class," Ranma complained, misreading Setsuna's expression as derogatory.

"Oh not at all, I like the violin," Setsuna said, smiling.

This, once again, was a new type of smile. It wasn't the one she got when she was keeping some sort of secret, reminiscent of a more experienced Nabiki, or the one that she had when she was being amused by something. This one was nostalgic, as if she was remembering something from a long time ago.

"Could you play it for me?" she suddenly asked.

Ranma was surprised and began fidgeting. "Erm, well I'm not very good at it yet," he explained. This wasn't a martial art, after all, so admission of lack of skill wasn't quite as bad.

Seeing Setsuna's encouraging nod, he sighed and un-slung the case, opening it and extracting the instrument inside. He quickly checked the bow as he had been taught by the instructor in class as the very first thing in the lesson, and seeing that it was still ready for use, lifted the violin into position under his chin.

He'd picked up the positions to make the notes relatively quickly. They had a lot to do with martial arts stances, each one a different position for a different purpose. He hadn't been able to get the tempo of any music yet and sheet music was a horrendously complicated blob so far, but he could play a scale, at least.

Setsuna listened in silence, as Ranma started playing the scale. His reflex control made his hands rock steady and all of the notes came out clearly, but the transition was a bit flawed. Even still, she leaned back and listened. Given the memories from his past life which were evidently subconsciously filtering through, and Ranma's own learning curve, he would probably be able to get close to the level Neptune had had in the silver millennium within a few months.

Even if Ranma hadn't been the original recipient of Neptune's star seed and his character overrode much of Neptune's traits, Setsuna could still see her old teammate in him. Of course, even less of Princess Serenity was really visible in Usagi most of the time, and she was the RIGHT receiver for the seed, so she supposed things balanced out.

-CM-

Down the hall, Haruka was standing, looking confused, next to Nodoka.

The older woman had her eyes closed, and there were tears coming from them. Yes, Ranma was doing pretty good for the first day playing an instrument, but he was just playing a scale. It wasn't like it was some grand symphonic piece. "Are you all right, Nodoka-san?" she asked, nervously reaching out and shaking the auburn haired woman's shoulder.

"What have we done?" Nodoka murmured, not seeming to have heard Haruka's question. The cross-dressing blonde couldn't know, of course, that Nodoka's mind was locked in a single train of thought.

She had thought that Ranma's main and only real talent was the art, until she'd come here. She'd seen that he was perfectly capable of surviving by himself and that he even had a hidden talent for music. She kept wondering what would have happened if she hadn't given him up when he was young. Damn Genma for taking him on that training trip and damn her for letting him.

After a couple of seconds she realized that the rising and falling scales had stopped and someone was standing in front of her. "Aunt Nodoka, are you all right?" Ranma asked, looking at the one he couldn't call mother with concern.

"Ranma, I… I…" Nodoka stuttered, feeling the tears that had gathered at the edge of her eyes. Abruptly, her control snapped and she was hugging her former son tightly, crying into his shoulder and mumbling "I'm sorry," over and over again.

"We should leave them alone," came a voice, belonging to Setsuna, from just behind Haruka's left shoulder. The blonde jumped about three feet in the air, but after glaring at the green haired woman she allowed herself to be led out of the room.

"What was that about?" she asked, looking at Setsuna curiously.

The green haired woman shook her head slowly. "Let's just go upstairs for a while," she said, before walking off.

Haruka looked back and forth between the two ends of the hallway, then chose the one with the staircase. Whatever was going on with Ranma and Nodoka, Setsuna evidently thought it was private and Haruka had intruded on one private moment already recently.

-CM-

The next morning Haruka woke to the feeling of an empty bed. This wasn't an unusual feeling, but for the past two mornings she'd been noticing it quite a bit. Even if they were slightly embarrassed by it, she missed waking up in Ranma's arms, or preferably, the other way around, for the few days when their rooms had been unusable. Sunday had been fun, for sure.

Getting out of bed, she began to dress while thinking about what had happened the night before. She wasn't entirely sure why Ranma's violin practice had set Nodoka off like that, but she wasn't going to ask. Sometimes, she wished that her mother would care as much about her as his aunt seemed to about him. Then again, the thought of trading her father for Ranma's father, an idiot named Genma, made her shudder. Her father was about the only family member she missed, though sometimes she was glad he wasn't here.

Despite the number of girls he'd seen her date, the mere hint of evidence of a guy going after her turned him into a madman with a will to scare the poor guy half to death. One of her mechanics who had made a random comment about her being cute had been scared by the man so much that he had never come back. Of course, the irony in that was that the poor mechanic was gay.

Chuckling at the memory, Haruka slipped the school uniform shirt over her bound upper torso, quickly brushing her fingers through her hair. She'd worry about actually getting ready later.

Leaving the room, she headed down to the smell of breakfast.

-CM-

As Haruka entered the kitchen, she blinked. Ranma was standing at the stove in female form, stirring a pot of rice. "Feeling domestic today?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Aunty Nodoka's asleep and I didn't wanna wake her up," Ranma responded, looking away from the food for a moment. "The Miso's already done, you wanna get it?"

Haruka nodded, retrieving the pot of soup and pouring it into the bowls that were already set out on the table. Looking back at the redhead who was standing at the stove, she felt her mouth quirk into a smile. "You'd make a good wife, Ranma-chan," she teased her, grinning widely.

Ranma twitched violently and sent a glare at the blonde. "What was that?" she demandedin annyoance.

"Nothing, nothing!" Haruka quickly said, holding up her hands in pacification. No need to get on Ranma's bad side.

A few seconds later Setsuna entered the room, her hair mussed and her eyes still half full of sleep. It was amazing how much she differed from her usual manner when she first woke up. She became more awake when taking in the display in front of her, feeling amused by it.

"Feeling a bit domestic, Ranma?" she teased, inadvertently copying Haruka.

"Y'know, I could let this burn," Ranma drawled, glaring at Setsuna. The older woman just laughed as she sat at the table and opened up a paper that she'd brought in with her.

"Where's Nodoka-san?" the dark green haired woman asked, peeking out from the side of the paper after a minute to let Ranma cool down.

"She's sleeping," Ranma repeated, sighing. "I don't think she'll be up any time soon."

Setsuna nodded solemnly as Ranma decided that the rice was done and set the pot full on a plate in the middle of the table. "You know we've got a rice cooker," Setsuna added offhand, causing Ranma to twitch slightly.

-CM-

Mr. Tenoh looked from the side window of a large black car, noticing the state of the neighborhood around him. Although there were occasional craters or damaged walls, the place seemed to be mostly well maintained. This began to make him wonder precisely what had made all of those craters, and hope that Haruka had kept clear of it.

"How long until we arrive?" he asked, addressing the driver in the front seat of the car.

"We are turning onto the street now, Sir," the man replied as the car made a 90 degree turn.

"Why in the world did the girl run here?" Mr. Tenoh's wife, a tall, blonde woman, asked in irritation.

"Well, you've got to admit we would never think of looking here," he commented as a small two story house drifted into view that had a number on the front matching the one he had gotten from his informant the day before.

His informant had actually been a friend of his, a member of the board of directors that Dr. Tomoe had assembled to subsidize his Infinity Academy project. He had asked that any mention of a Haruka Tenoh in the school's records be reported to him, and when she had registered for classes the day before, such a record was entered. It eally was more dumb luck.

After the car pulled up in front of the house, Mr. Tenoh stepped out and helped his wife out. They walked to the door and after a few moments, a green-haired woman in a grey women's business suit opened it. "Tenoh-san," the woman getted him, nodding as if she'd expected him this whole time.

Haruka's father's eyebrow rose in slight surprise. He had heard that Haruka was living with the owner of Meiou industries, but he had dismissed this as exaggeration. "Meiou-san," he greeted her, nodding. "May we come in?"

Setsuna nodded, clearing the entrance for her two visitors.

-CM-

Haruka entered the house, allowing her book bag to rest near the front entrance as she kicked off her shoes and slipped on her house slippers. Ranma had stayed behind, his math teacher having wanted to talk to him about a standard assessment he'd taken during class today, so she'd walked home alone.

Hearing talking from the living room, she poked her head in to see who was there, only to stop in shock at what she saw.

There, casually having tea with Setsuna, were her father and mother. She considered bolting, but she didn't have anywhere to bolt to and if she did she'd end up leaving Ranma. Besides, now that she had her own place to stay and her own career to fall back on if she had to, she could just tell them to get lost if she had to. Of course, she didn't WANT to do that. Hopefully, they would have given up on their idea to marry her off to some random guy. She really wished she hadn't forgotten the guy's name.

It seemed that Haruka had spent too much time with her head stuck through the doorway, as her father had seen it. "Haruka-chan!" he said, happily.

The blonde blushed as she entered the room. Well, at least that was a good sign. He wasn't angry at her, or at least, he was more relieved to see her than angry. "Erm, Hi dad," she greeted him lamely.

"Haruka, are you going to come and join us?" Setsuna asked, gesturing to a chair and sending her a meaningful look. Haruka sighed and plopped down in the chair, accepting a cup of tea.

"Setsuna-san has been telling us of what you've done since you came here," Haruka's father said, calmly. "It seems you're doing pretty well."

Haruka blinked. This wasn't what she was expecting when her parents tracked her down. "Yeah, I guess I'm doing pretty well," she said, uncertainly.

"And, now that you've proven how well you can cope with the world, We think it's time that you come home," her mother, who had been silent in a corner for most of the conversation, spoke up abruptly.

Mr. Tenoh winced. He'd wanted to be a bit more subtle about it, but words couldn't be unsaid. As he saw Haruka stiffen, he decided to speak up himself. "Haruka, I know you left because of the marriage arrangement, but please allow me to explain it."

"What's to explain?" Haruka asked, having abruptly stiffened up. "You plan on marrying me to a guy I don't know because his father agreed to trade him for a full course dinner ten years ago. That's about how I read it."

Mr. Tenoh winced. "Yes, that's about how I thought you'd read it, but the situation is more complex than that," he sighed. "We have to at least try to get you married to the boy, but the marriage doesn't have to succeed. If the boy's family agrees to call it off, we can, but we are required by honor to try."

Haruka blinked. They hadn't told her this before. "And why didn't you just tell me this rather than insisting that we go through with it?" she asked, giving voice to her question.

Her mother answered. "Because if we did, we could be accused of trying to ensure the marriage's failure ahead of time and lose much honor."

Haruka frowned. This made some sense. Her family, more particularly her father, was highly placed in the Japanese business community, and if they purposely sabotaged any agreement, even a marriage agreement for their own child, they would be looked down on.

"One thing I don't get though," she said after a few seconds of consideration. "Why the heck did you let a person engage their son to your daughter for a full course meal, anyways?"

Mr. Tenoh frowned. "Well, I met the man when he was traveling through Japan on a martial arts training trip with his son. The boy was practicing in a nearby vacant lot and after the man offered his son's hand to my daughter for some food, claiming that he was starving, I talked to the boy. He was rough around the edges, but more honest than his father and quite a strong martial artist." He looked sheepish. "At the time I didn't know how you would be when you were older, and I thought catching such a good prospective husband for you would be doing you a favor."

From behind Haruka, Nodoka, who had just entered from another portion of the house, spoke up. "That sounds much like something Genma would do," she muttered.

Haruka turned around to see her, and noticed that she was looking a lot better than she had the night before when she'd been crying. Then what Nodoka had said finally sunk in. That did sound a lot like the stories Ranma had told about his father's multiple engagement plans. It was at that point that several things snapped into place in her mind, and she asked a question.

"I don't suppose the boy's name was Ranma, was it?"

Haruka's father looked surprised. "How did you know?" he wondered.

Haruka slapped her hand to her forehead, just as she heard the front door of the house open.

-CM-

Ranma headed home, feeling more than a little annoyed.

He'd been called back to talk to a teacher after class had ended, and as he'd feared, it was so that he could do more school work. Apparently, he'd scored a bit too low on the math evaluation. The teacher had explained that Infinity Academy was a school that had a higher grading standard than most other high school or college campuses, and while his score would have been just barely sufficient in a normal school, he was afraid that he'd have to do better.

What this all came down to was that Ranma now had to go to a Juku course to improve his math skills at least once a week. His annoyance over this, plus the fact that there wasn't another person walking with him, had made Ranma prefer the roof tops for his trip home and he was already at the front door when he finished grumbling and cooled off.

Opening the front door, he called out the usual greeting. Strangely, the response wasn't the usual one.

"Ranma, please come to the living room!" Setsuna called.

He dropped his pack next to Haruka's, making sure the instrument case didn't bang into anything, and made his way to the living room only to see Setsuna, Haruka and Nodoka, along with two other people who looked a bit older than Nodoka. "Hello Ranma," Setsuna said, smiling. "These are the newest victims of Genma Saotome's fiancée scheme." She then gestured at the two older people who were sitting on the couch, looking thoroughly confused.

"Wait, ya mean Genma engaged me to their kid too?" Ranma asked, thinking that the day had just gotten worse. Setsuna nodded.

At this point, the man, who Ranma assumed was the fiancée's father, spoke up. "Excuse me, but am I correct in assuming that you're Ranma Saotome?"

Ranma frowned. "Well, not really. I left the Saotome family about a month ago. Sorry for the ol' bastard causin ya trouble, but I ain't gunna marry your daughter."

"R… really?" Haruka asked, from behind him.

Ranma turned around, and saw Haruka looking down. "Well, yeah." He said, confused. Haruka looked down even further, so he looked at Setsuna for help.

The green haired woman shook her head, and then spoke. "These are Mr. and Mrs. Tenoh."

"Oh… shit..." Ranma said, as what he'd just said dawned on him. "What'd I just say?"

He'd done it again. He'd stuck his foot in his mouth, and swallowed down to the knee. He looked around frantically, but everyone was just staring at him. "I… that is…" he stuttered, not sure how he'd gotten into this. "Haruka, I…" She didn't look up. "I didn't mean that. I, I wanna marry you, really!" He said, and then stopped dead, even in his breathing.

Haruka's face whipped up, with a look of supreme shock on it. She hadn't really been upset with Ranma when he'd said he wasn't going to marry her. He hadn't even known it was her at the time, and besides, they hadn't known each other for very long.

"Did you mean that, son?" Haruka's father asked, looking at Ranma intently.

Ranma's first instinct was to deny that he had said anything, like he had always done when he slipped and showed affection to Akane. Fortunately, his better judgment prevailed when he realized that his denials of his feelings for Akane had been a contributing factor to their problems, and he spoke the truth. "Yeah… Yeah, I think I did." He said, looking just as shocked as Haruka, as he slumped down to the floor.

"I really think I did."

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Contemplation on an Engagement

The living room of the Meiou house was silent after Ranma's final statement, each of its occupants running through their own individual thought processes.

Setsuna, while outwardly calm, was inwardly half way between blind panic and maniacal laughter. She'd known that Ranma would introduce a wave of chaos into the timeline, and that it would eventually drift almost completely from its preset path, but this was ridiculous. Admittedly, she had thought that given their natural attraction from their past lives, the two would probably eventually marry, but the impact of it occurring even before they became Senshi could be a problem.

She quickly ran through several different ways to mitigate the damage that this would do to her plans, before catching herself. Who was she to interfere with this? She had very little more warning than anyone else if the situation was to go bad, and by the same token she had no way of knowing that it wouldn't make a better future than the original course. She picked up her tea cup, her hand trembling only slightly, and resolved that she would let events play themselves out and only interfere if and when it seemed appropriate.

Nodoka, from her position standing behind the Senshi of Time, was smiling brightly. The night before, she had heard Ranma reveal a talent she'd never known he'd had, and abruptly it had crashed down upon her. The thought that she knew almost nothing about her own son and hadn't been a big part of his life since he'd left on the training trip. Ranma had been quick to comfort her, but even though the momentary swell of grief had passed, the actual problem hadn't.

Now, however, she was seeing a major part of Ranma's life. He'd just proposed to a girl, in his own clumsy fashion, and she had been there to witness it. Maybe she'd even be there to attend the wedding, or even better, help plan it. The former Saotome woman drifted off into the traditional pass-time of the mothers of engaged people.

Haruka's father wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He had come to find his daughter and get her to agree to at least meet the boy she was engaged to, only to find out that she apparently already knew him, and he liked her enough to propose to her. At least, that was what it had sounded like, though the boy seemed remarkably indecisive to him.

He would normally feel obliged to play the overprotective father at this moment, but he had technically already given this boy leave to pursue his daughter. Also he already seemed so scared that any interference from his side would be overkill. "Could he at least stop gaping like that?" he whispered, not loudly enough for anyone in the room to hear other than his wife.

Mrs. Tenoh frowned at her husband's comment. It was true that the boy had a rather strangely shocked expression on his face, but she was willing to let a lot of things pass given the fact that a boy had just proposed to her little girl, and she wasn't objecting violently.

Mrs. Tenoh, perhaps more than her husband, always had to act as a proper member of a rich and powerful family. Truthfully, she hadn't had all that much of a problem with her daughter's choice of companions, however she had had to show the expected disapproval, and couldn't have let the girl actually spend her life with one of the women she'd met, as that would have been an embarrassment to the family.

When Haruka had run away after the attempt at an engagement, she'd cried into her husband's chest at night, thinking that her actions had driven their daughter away, but she'd still had to act cool and calm in public.

Now that her daughter had, apparently, found a man that she could love, perhaps things between them could get better again. This thought was abruptly interrupted, as she saw that the boy was starting to fidget because of the continuing silence in the room. Getting up from her chair, she walked quietly over to Haruka and whispered something in her ear.

"Dear, I suggest you say or do something before the boy thinks you're rejecting him."

-CM-

Ranma looked at Haruka from his position kneeling on the floor, unsure of her reaction to his clumsy attempt at a proposal. He hadn't really meant to do it. He'd just seen Haruka looking hurt and sad, and said the first thing that had come to mind, but after the words were out of his mouth he realized that they were, if not true, extremely close to it.

He'd started out regarding Haruka as alternately a nuisance and a student, but things had progressed rapidly after the two found out about each other's secrets. She'd even had him, or rather his cursed form, on a date within a day of the revelation that she was a girl.

What was it with him and falling head over heels for the girls he liked so quickly? He'd been hit in the back of the head by Akane on the first day he'd known her, even if he now privately admitted it was half his fault for the comment about his cursed form's chest, and he had still fallen for her within a few days. Then he'd fallen for Haruka before he'd even known she was female.

As he lifted his head to see what Haruka was doing, he saw her shake her head slightly. Was that an indication that she was going to say no? A part of him was relieved at that thought, but a much larger one seemed to sink into the pit of his stomach. As their eyes locked, Haruka acted.

-CM-

Haruka sat there, gaping at Ranma. She reviewed the past few seconds in her mind, not believing what had happened.

She had expected his denial of his engagement to her, especially since he hadn't known it was her he was talking about, and had wanted to tease him a little. So she'd acted sad about it. Well, now she knew the results of doing THAT. He'd panicked and then said that he'd marry her. She'd been surprised, even then, but then her father's question had come and rather than retract his previous statement, Ranma had confirmed it.

Ranma wanted to marry her. Well, maybe that was a little much. At the very least, he loved her enough to say that he wanted to marry her and mean it at least a bit. The question that immediately sprung up in her mind was: 'How do I feel about this?'

Her primary emotion at the moment was obviously astonishment, but behind it she had a strong desire to run around giggling her head off. She suppressed this immediately, but she still felt really good. Ranma quite obviously really liked her and, despite his normal gender, she was pretty sure she liked him too. Heck, his being a guy was actually an asset, since that meant that they actually COULD get married, something that wouldn't have been possible with another girl. Of course, that rationalization didn't matter. Ranma had done a good job of catching her, in either of his forms, even if mostly unintentionally.

Somehow, she didn't want to break free.

She shook her head slightly and noticed a flinch coming from the form of Ranma, who was still kneeling in front of her. When she looked into his eyes, she saw that most of his emotions were laid bare and that at this moment she could probably completely destroy him if she said or did the wrong thing. To make the pressure worse, her mother had just whispered something in her ear.

"Dear, I suggest you say or do something before the boy thinks you're rejecting him."

What was she supposed to do now? After about ten seconds of trying to think up the correct words to say to Ranma, the blonde tomboy gave up and leaned forward, lifting the pigtailed martial artist's head to meet her eyes. He looked confused for about a second, before her lips met his.

About fifteen seconds later, Ranma and Haruka pulled apart.

"Well, I suppose that answers the question of whether she wants to marry him," Setsuna drawled, before she could stop herself.

"So, when will the date of the wedding be?" Nodoka asked, excitedly.

Mrs. Tenoh turned to her and was about to start talking, until Ranma's sharp voice cut in. "It ain't gunna be soon," he said, drawing most of the room's attention to him, including Haruka's

"Are you going back on your proposal to my daughter?" Mr. Tenoh asked, beginning to sound angry.

Ranma refrained from mentioning that he technically hadn't proposed to Haruka, but continued on doggedly. "No, that ain't what I meant," he sighed. "I really wish I hadn't said that." Now, the attention from the room had turned half way hostile. Setsuna was still neutral, but Nodoka was disappointed, the Tenohs, especially Mr. Tenoh, were glaring and Haruka averted her eyes again.

"Argh…" Ranma growled, shaking his head. "That ain't what I meant. I meant what I said 'ta Haruka, alright? I just didn't really wanna say it right now."

The collective mood in the room after this statement was confusion. "Perhaps you should explain that, Ranma," Setsuna said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well," Ranma said, nervously. "First off, I ain't marryin Haruka 'cuz of the old bastard's promise. I mean, the old man made five arrangements that I know about, and the Kami knows how many others that I don't. I said I'd marry her 'cuz I…" he looked down in embarrassment. "I… like Haruka." He finally stammered.

"So why do you wish you hadn't said that now?" Haruka's father asked, seeing that the pigtailed boy had seemingly stalled.

"'Cuz I think it's way too early ta start plannin for a wedding," Ranma responded, bluntly. "I ain't gunna let ya push Haruka into marrying me. I proposed to her myself, so we should be able ta set the date."

Haruka's mother and Nodoka both looked like they were going to say something, however Mr. Tenoh raised a palm to stop them, nodding in respect. "The boy has a point," he said, and when his wife shot a questioning look at him, he explained. "If what he says is true, then the engagement between our family and the Saotome clan is nullified by Genma Saotome's actions and Ranma and Haruka chose to get engaged on their own. Haruka, you were trying to accept the engagement when you…" He trailed off, looking at his daughter questioningly.

Haruka looked hesitant for a moment, but finally nodded shortly.

"Ah, then it's settled. Ranma, can I have a word with you?" Haruka's father asked, as he stood from the couch and laid a hand on Ranma's shoulder. The pigtailed boy could easily have broken the older man's hold, but allowed himself to be lead out of the room.

Still sitting in her chair, Haruka worried about what her father wanted to talk to Ranma about. She doubted that he was going to try and scare the boy off, especially after his show of support for him, and even if he did try, she doubted that it would work on Ranma. Her musings were interrupted, as a shadow fell over her.

"Erm, Mother?" she asked, nervously, looking up at the older woman. She was surprised when she quickly found her mother's arms wrapped around her and the woman hugging her tightly.

-CM-

Ranma stood in the kitchen across from Mr. Tenoh, who was studying him intently. After a few seconds of this, the older man spoke. "Ranma-kun, I wanted to talk to you away from my wife and daughter for a few moments." He saw Ranma's confused look, and clarified "My wife tends to be… a bit overly-concerned with appearances, and some of the things I may find out could cause her to worry. As for Haruka, I believe her mother would like to be with her for a while."

"Wadda ya wanna talk about, Tenoh-san?" Ranma asked, a bit confused but seeing the man's point. According to the bit Haruka had told him about her mother, she reminded him eerily of his own from before he'd left the Saotome family.

"Well, to begin with, I'd like to know why you left Genma, and precisely how you did it," Mr. Tenoh said, bluntly.

"I left the old man 'cuz He'd engaged me ta too many girls, and I couldn't get out of the mess without causin a lot of dishonor and pain ta all of 'em." He looked uncomfortable before continuing, reluctantly. "I got away from him by becoming a Ronin."

Mr. Tenoh nodded slightly. "Well, if what you say is the truth then I cannot really blame you for leaving your clan." Noticing Ranma's annoyance about having his word questioned, he continued. "Your being a Ronin is actually not as severe a problem as it would normally be, at least not to me."

"Huh?" Ranma wondered why this could be.

"Haruka is my and Kiriko's only child, and for medical reasons we can't have another," the man explained, sadly. "We had always intended to try and find Haruka a husband who would be willing to accept adoption into our clan rather than the usual method of the woman being added to the man's. Obviously, given your lack of a family name, you would be ideal for that and as I said, if your story about Genma is true, and I will check it, then you are much more concerned with honor than many people with clans are today."

Ranma blinked. While the man's questioning of his word annoyed him, he found it refreshing that a non-gaijin aside from Haruka, Nodoka or Setsuna knew he was a Ronin and didn't look down on him for it.

"Now," Mr. Tenoh said, clapping the pigtailed boy on the shoulder, "How about you tell me how you caught Haruka-chan's interest."

Ranma looked uncertain for a moment, then seemed to decide something. "That'll take a bit of explanation, and I should probably tell ya about somethin first," he explained, before walking over to the kitchen counter and turning the cold water tap. Mr. Tenoh looked at him curiously, before he put his hand under the tap and switched to female form.

-CM-

About five minutes later, a once-again male Ranma walked back into the living room, with a wide eyed Mr. Tenoh following.

"Well, have you finished inspecting Ranma-san?" Mrs. Tenoh asked, annoyed.

Her husband seemed to be distracted, as it took him a few seconds to answer. "Oh, Yes," He answered distantly.

He had known that this area of Tokyo was a bit strange, but he hadn't expected it to be brought home quite so clearly and evidently as it had with Ranma's curse. Looking at his wife, he decided that he wasn't going to tell her about that little quirk of her daughter's new fiancé for a while. At least now he knew one of the reasons why Haruka felt attracted to Ranma. Considering what he knew of his daughter's tastes, thai actually made Ranma the really best choice for a happy relationship.

Looking at his watch, he blinked. It was getting pretty late. "Kiriko, we should probably get home before it gets much later," he commented.

The aforementioned woman frowned, seeming to want to spend more time with her daughter that she'd just found again, but nodded in agreement when she checked a clock on the wall. The two promised that they would visit again within the next week, before Nodoka walked them to the door. To Ranma's dismay, he could still hear Nodoka and Mrs. Tenoh discussing ideas for wedding decorations.

-CM-

Later that night, after the four occupants of the house had finished dinner and Nodoka had gone to bed, Ranma stood looking very uneasy at Haruka in the front hall. "I guess things have changed, huh?" he mumbled, now that the two were alone to talk.

"Yeah, I guess so," Haruka responded, uncertainly. "I mean, we're actually engaged now, and everything."

"If you want to…" Ranma started, unable to finish his sentence.

"Didn't I make myself clear when you asked?" Haruka responded, smiling a little nervously. "But that doesn't mean we have to get hitched right away, right?"

Ranma nodded quickly. "Yeah. I mean, my last wedding attempt involved high explosive pork buns. I'd rather hold off for a while."

Haruka laughed. "Well I definitely don't want to end up in that frilly white dress!" she said, and then seemed to get an idea. "Hey, how about we switch! I bet Ranko would look really cute in a wedding dress."

"Hey, that'd better be a joke," Ranma growled, looking at Haruka dangerously. The blonde just laughed as she ran up the stairs. Ranma stood at the bottom, looking at her. He may have regretted when he'd said it, but he quietly decided that he didn't regret what he'd said.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: The Rogue Doctor and the Firefly.

Mr. Tenoh sat in his office, looking over a bunch of official looking documents. Several were police reports, one was the Saotome clan roll and another was a summary he had had made up detailing what he could learn of the life of one Ranma Meiou. That last fact had been quite a surprise. Apparently, the boy had managed to get himself adopted into the Meiou clan without knowing it, as he thought he was still a Ronin.

The man frowned. He really didn't know what Setsuna was playing at, adopting the boy, but it was yet another indication in his favor. Legend in the business world had it that her predecessors had managed to predict almost every disaster or breakthrough, and even their most unpredictable and seemingly random actions eventually revealed themselves to have a legitimate and quite ingenious reason.

Even without this somewhat nebulous endorsement of the boy, Mr. Tenoh was inclined to like him. He had the tact of a rock, but was honest and honorable. Perhaps most importantly, he seemed to make Haruka happy. The man had to blush at that thought. Given what the boy's other form looked like, his daughter was probably very happy indeed. Ranma was perhaps the only person who could satisfy Haruka's needs AND was still acceptable in society.

Even so, He had wished to check into the boy's story, and that had been one of the reasons he'd left the Meiou home so quickly. The other was that his wife was getting a look in her eye that made him think she was getting ideas. Judging from the fact that she'd been talking to Nodoka-san, who he had learned was Ranma's mother, he had decided that he should get her out of there quickly.

Sighing as he decided to get back to work, the brown haired man riffled through the police reports.

A lot of them had the name Genma Saotome written in them, and a few had Ranma's own name. Some of the crimes were obviously committed by the boy, mostly minor food thefts, but those seemed to taper off as he'd gotten older. Some of the ones that were written under his name quite obviously couldn't have been caused by him, especially since one had involved running up a 30,000 Yen bar tab, when the boy had only been six years old.

What was worse, the boy apparently had over twelve engagements that he could find, all of which were arranged by Genma. Several of them were to people Mr. Tenoh knew, and therefore could probably be negated. He would have to do research on the others. Precisely why was he doing this? Admittedly, he would have been a lot happier if Haruka had never found interest in anyone and had kept to her racing. It was much safer, in his opinion.

Then again, she liked Ranma and the boy was, quite frankly, better than the alternatives. His wife had tried a few times to search for a husband for their daughter, and one of those boys still gave him nightmares. True, he was from a noble and old house, but he, and his father and sister, were all a bunch of lunatics. True, there had been a tragedy in the family, but it still didn't explain such utter madness.

He shuddered. Yes, far better Ranma than that. His decision re-affirmed, he reached for a phone and began dialing. After it stopped ringing and someone picked up, he spoke. "Hello, Kuonji-san?"

-CM-

Ranma walked along the street next to Haruka, in a thoughtful silence. It'd been over a day since his inadvertent proposal to Haruka, and though things were definitely different, he hadn't ended up being driven back into the Fiancee rat race his life had been in Nerima. He knew that there was little chance of that, but the fear was there. He'd never have thought that he would have submitted to an engagement willingly, but he had, and the world hadn't ended.

In fact, he and Haruka had gone out for dinner yesterday with the last of his pay from the metro center.

He frowned at that. His basic needs were taken care of by living at Setsuna's, even though he felt a little like he was freeloading back at the Tendos, but he didn't have much extra cash. Heck, he hadn't even given Haruka a ring. Well, perhaps that was more of a good thing. After all, she couldn't really wear the engagement ring while dressed as a guy without getting some odd looks and Ranma sucked at picking out jewelry anyways.

No, that wasn't what was bothering him. What was bothering him was the fact that strange things had started happening again, even if the last one hadn't been bad. Was his life going to start getting as strange as it had been in Nerima? Truthfully, for him, the weirdness of Nerima had been fun. The only problem had been the multiple engagements, and the fact that he'd been hurting people just by being there.

He was a martial artist, and needed challenges to survive. He'd figured that he could go on a training trip when he became restless, find a dojo where the master was good enough to fight against, or even have the occasional spar with Mousse, but it seemed that the chaotic nature of his life would not be denied and a week ago it had almost gotten Haruka killed. He didn't know why these thoughts had come to him now, though. Maybe it was because the proposal two days before had made him think of his and Haruka's relationship again.

"You're pretty quiet today," Haruka observed suddenly, trying to break the silence. "Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Ranma waved it off, shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts.

Haruka sighed as Ranma lapsed back into his former silent state after this statement. She knew there was something wrong, and wondered why he was brooding about it now. Nothing had happened yesterday to cause such a reaction and she sincerely hoped that it wasn't the events of the day before that disturbed him so much. She doubted that Ranma would tell her what was wrong if she asked him again, so about all she could do was try and distract him and cheer him up. Thinking of how to do that, she got an idea.

Ranma looked up, startled, as Haruka broke into a slow jog, gradually building up to a run. "Hey, what're ya doin?" he asked as he matched her pace.

"Outrunning you!" she retorted, casually, as she abruptly sped up.

"No ya ain't!" he shot back, getting into the competition.

Unlike in her fighting, Haruka actually was on par with Ranma when it came to sprinting speed. Running seemed to be one of her talents and she had an almost scary ability to skirt obstacles tightly in order to cut corners. His worries about the chaos of his former life began to fade as he enjoyed the exhilaration of trying to chase down Haruka, and they were almost completely gone by the time he got to the school.

-CM-

Later that day, Ranma sat in a classroom staring at a chalkboard. Since this was not Furinkan and he wasn't particularly tired, he did his best not to fall asleep. He'd been told that this was a basic wood shop class, though they had spent most of this class in a classroom next to the shop.

Since all the school's shops were near the ground level, where the younger children were usually placed, the room he was in was actually a borrowed Junior high homeroom with brightly colored posters on the walls.

Casually, he glanced out one of the windows that showed the corridor outside, shuddering at a picture of a cat that was taped there. What little kids saw in those monsters he didn't know. His eyes widened as he saw what looked like a brown haired man in glasses and a lab coat skipping down the hall. Wait, he recognized that man.

"Sir?" he asked, drawing the teacher's attention.

"Yes, Mr. Meiou?" the teacher asked, causing Ranma to wince. He'd forgotten to ask Setsuna why she'd given her last name on his application form before, but this reminded him.

"I need to leave for a few minutes to," he trailed off, trying to think up an excuse. "do something." He finally said, knowing that he couldn't think of a lie in this short a time.

The teacher sighed. "Well, go and do 'something' then," he said, gesturing towards the door.

Ranma nodded, and quickly ran from the room. Proceeding in the direction where Tofu had run off, he saw several children looking on in astonishment and giggling. He thought that was a sign that he was probably close.

Rounding a corner, the young martial artist saw the form of the skipping doctor near the end of the hallway. Sprinting down, making sure to avoid the students in the way, he caught up and grabbed Tofu by the shoulder.

"Oh, Ryoga! How nice to see you here!" Tofu said, cheerfully, as he reached to shake Ranma's hand.

Ranma jerked his hand away. The last time he'd let a Kasumified Tofu shake his hand, he hadn't been able to feel it for a week. The man was pretty far gone, as if he'd been in the same room with the oldest Tendo for a few minutes before skipping out. That was impossible, though. Wasn't Kasumi back in Nerima? Was it possible that there was another girl that could cause the same reaction in the doctor?

"What's the matter, Ryoga?" Tofu asked, reaching for Ranma's arm. Sighing, the pigtailed martial artist decided to use the method he'd found to snap Tofu out of his daze, a few weeks before he'd left Nerima. Grabbing the older man's arm, he threw him over his shoulder and landed him on his back with a loud thump.

"Hey, what are you doing?" someone, one of the Jr. high school teachers, yelled as she marched up to Ranma. "How could you do that?"

Fortunately, Tofu was recovering, and standing from his position flat on the floor. "Sarah, I'm all right, and I actually thank Ranma here for bringing me back to my senses," he said, as he dusted his white coat off.

"You thank him for throwing you onto your back?" the teacher asked, blinking. At Tofu's nod, she shook her head slowly and walked down the hall.

As Tofu straightened himself out, Ranma looked him over. He wasn't wearing his usual brown gi, but a blue dress shirt and black pants with a lab coat over them. On the right side of the coat, he wore a nametag that identified him as faculty. His glasses were half off his face, but not broken.

"Sorry if I threw ya too hard, doc," Ranma said, sheepishly.

"It's all right, Ranma," Tofu said, starting to walk towards a set of stairs. He sighed.

"So what happened, there another girl who's like Kasumi here?" Ranma asked, shaking the Doctor's shoulder as his glasses began to fog up again.

Tofu sighed. "Actually, it is Kasumi," he said..

"Kasumi, here?" Ranma responded, surprised. "How?"

"Apparently she's taking the school's medical courses," Tofu explained, despondently.

Ranma knew the reason for this. The doctor had left Nerima a few months after he'd come, specifically because of Kasumi. While he loved her, and his reaction to her proved it, that reaction was also causing him no end of trouble. Even in Nerima, a doctor who caused his patients pain wasn't something to be tolerated and he'd been losing patients for years. It'd finally gotten to the point that he couldn't keep his business open and he'd left to found a new practice elsewhere. Evidently, Kasumi had accidentally found him.

"Well, class is almost over. You've been dancin around for a while. Kasumi probably won't be in your classroom now," Ranma offered, lamely.

"But what if I meet her in the hallway?" Tofu asked, looking thoroughly miserable.

"Look, I got a break after this class, so I guess I could go with ya and make sure ya don't run into her," Ranma responded, feeling the absurdity of the situation. Here he was, offering to guard a guy from the girl he loved, not to mention a girl who would never dream of hurting anyone. Unfortunately, for Tofu, it was a fact of life.

-CM-

About five minutes later, and ten floors up, Ranma opened the door to Dr. Tofu's classroom, seeing that the teacher's desk had been overturned. Fortunately it seemed that all the students had left, including Kasumi. Tofu sighed as he bent down and started picking up the papers from the floor. Ranma helped out by flipping the desk back to its former position.

Tofu looked down at the papers, one of which was a list of names, obviously the class attendance list. "What am I going to do?" he muttered.

"Ya could ask for another teacher to take yer class," Ranma suggested, uncertainly.

Tofu shook his head. "None of the other doctors here use alternative medicine," he growled, as he shuffled the papers and placed them back on the desk. "And now I'm going to lose another job because I can't control myself around Kasumi." His glasses began to fog up once again and Ranma reached out again to shake him out of it. "I can barely say her name!" he cried, slumping down into his chair.

"Well," Ranma said, uncomfortably. Tofu had helped him out by treating his injuries while he was in Nerima, and he felt uncomfortable seeing him so frustrated and upset now. "I wish I could help, but I got no idea of anything ta do."

"It's all right," Tofu said, shaking his head and raising one hand to his temple. "I'll talk to Suichi and see if I can get my classes switched."

"Suichi?" Ranma asked, uncomprehending.

"Professor Tomoe. He's the one who founded the school. I knew him in medical school… though He's been acting a little strange lately," Tofu said, muttering the last part just loudly enough for Ranma to hear it. "Now you should probably get going to lunch, considering the amount of food you usually need to eat," he continued, attempting a grin.

"Yeah, I guess," Ranma said, looking up at the clock. It was half way through his lunch hour. Shrugging, he left the room, only looking back for a moment, to see that Tofu was continuing the rather large task of cleaning up his room after his Kasumi induced rampage.

-CM-

Ranma muttered curses as she walked down the hallway to the room where her class had been. She'd accidentally run into a cleaning lady's bucket in the middle of the floor. She still didn't know how she ended up running into things like that, given her martial arts honed reflexes, but she'd given up on figuring it out soon after getting the curse.

Entering the room, she saw that it's normal students had reclaimed it, and it was full of little kids. Fortunately, her pack was still leaning against her desk and looked to be untouched. Picking it up, she slung it over her shoulder. It was at about this point that she noticed the disturbance on the other side of the room. There was a black haired girl being backed against a desk by a circle of larger boys.

She quickly moved towards the group, and caught a bit of their conversation.

"That was for Asuka's arm!" one of the boys said, having apparently just done something to the girl.

"B… But all I did was try to help!" she said, sounding scared.

"No you weren't! You cut her arm, and then tried that glowing hand thing on it!" the boy objected, approaching the girl again.

"But I didn't cut it!" she objected, desperately. "At least… I don't remember…"

"You don't remember? Well too bad!" the boy yelled, whipping out a leg to kick the girl. Ranma immediately moved, catching the foot in one hand.

"Hey, what'cha doin gangin up on a girl like that?" she asked, glaring around at the boys.

"But she…" The leader stuttered, his one foot still held in mid-air.

"I don't really care what she did, at least ya coulda faced her without yer friends." Ranma said, before dropping the leg. "You okay?" she continued, turning to the girl.

"Yes, I'm fine." The girl said, quietly. Ranma noticed that her eyes were a strange, but still nice looking light purple color. For a second, she thought she saw something in them, but it vanished when she blinked. The girl was quite obviously holding an arm over her front.

"Did they already hit you?" Ranma pressed, putting a hand over the arm that was resting across the girl's stomach. "C'mon, I'll take ya to the nurse's office."

"Thank you," the girl murmured, following Ranma as she walked out of the room.

In the hallway, the girl's teacher approached, apparently coming from her lunch break. "Excuse me, where are you taking Hotaru?" she asked, blocking Ranma's way.

"I'm just takin her down to the nurse's office." Ranma responded, pulling her empty wallet out of her pocket and shifting through it to find her girl form's ID card. "Some of the kids were givin her a hard time, and I think she's hurt."

The teacher frowned, and Ranma heard her mumble "Not again," under her breath. Then, she looked over the ID card. "All right then, Ranko-san. Thank you for helping Hotaru."

"No problem," Ranma responded, before leading the quiet girl down the hall.

"Why did you help me?" Hotaru asked, as the two were nearing the nurse's office.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused.

"I asked why you helped me," the girl repeated. "Most people don't like me."

Ranma shrugged. "I don't see why anyone wouldn't like ya, you seem like a pretty nice kid," she said, not noticing that the girl was blushing. "Anyways, havin five people against one ain't a fair fight, so I really couldn't just let 'em beat you up. Well, I probably couldn't have let it happen if it'd just been that guy, but…" she admitted, before the two entered the nurse's office.

The on-duty nurse seemed to recognize Hotaru, as when she saw her she frowned. "Oh, Hotaru-san. What happened this time?" she asked, concerned.

"I think someone kicked her in the gut," Ranma responded, letting go of the girl's hand.

The nurse knelt down and felt the young girl's stomach, causing a small wince. Her frown became deeper, but she stood up and looked back to Ranma anyways. "Thank you for bringing Hotaru in. I can take care of her now."

"All right, see ya Hotaru-chan," Ranma said, leaving the room.

"Goodbye Ranko-san," Hotaru said, waving. As the nurse guided her to a bed, she thought of the redhead she'd just met. She was such a nice person. She couldn't help but think, however, that she would change her opinion of Hotaru if she ever found out how much of a freak she was.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: A Father's Deal, a Senshi's Will and a Horse's Age.

Unazuki sucked on the straw to her milkshake as she listened to Kasumi talk about her day at school. The older girl always seemed to like telling what had happened during her days, and the younger one didn't really mind listening. Today's events, however, caught the redhead's interest and she hadn't noticed her milkshake glass becoming empty two minutes ago.

"So let me get this straight," she finally said, releasing the straw. "You have a teacher, who you knew in Nerima, and who dances around his classroom with a skeleton?"

"Oh, Tofu-Sensei didn't have his skeleton this time," Kasumi clarified from her position on the other side of the Crown fruit parlor, cleaning a table in preparation for closing time.

"Look, the skeleton doesn't matter," Unazuki said, exasperated. "I mean, this guy can't act like that all the time or there's no way he'd be a teacher."

"Hmm, I never thought about that," Kasumi said, putting a hand to her chin. "But he always acts that way when I'm around. He's so funny." Then, the eldest Tendo's eyebrows furrowed. "Akane-chan did tell me once that he acted differently when I wasn't around, but I didn't think it was important."

Unazuki sighed. She liked her family's new house guest, she really did, but she'd picked up the fact that Kasumi was a little oblivious sometimes. "Did you ever think there was a reason he acted like that around you?" she asked, attempting to lead the horse to water.

Kasumi thought for a moment, and then her eyes widened. "Oh my!" she said, and Unazuki's opinion of her ability to grasp the obvious increased. "Is he angry at me for something?" …Only to crash back down into its former spot, and then a few levels below.

"Kasumi, the guy LIKES you!" Unazuki said, and to make sure she couldn't possibly misunderstand, she continued. "I mean, he really likes you. That's why he's acting so strange."

"Oh, well that's nice," Kasumi said, smiling.

When a few minutes passed without her saying anything else, her redheaded friend finally spoke up. "Well aren't you going to do something about it?"

The eldest Tendo just kept silent, but she had a contemplative expression on her face. What Unazuki had said, now that it was spelled out, made a great deal of sense. Truthfully, she had to admit that she'd always, subconsciously, known that Tofu liked her, but she'd had to deny it. He'd started acting strange around her when she was sixteen. he was about twenty-six, that's ten years her senior, but that hadn't been the issue. He was a kind man and wouldn't have done anything to her.

No, the problem had been that she was still responsible for her sisters and father. Akane had only been thirteen, and even Nabiki was still a bit too young to support herself. Her father, well that was self-evident.

Now, however, she'd left home. She was in college and had a job. Did she really have a reason not to pursue Tofu? Well, there was one. What if his strange habit of acting funny stuck around after they got together? It was funny now, but she thought it'd get old fast. A small frown crossed her face. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try and see what happened, though she'd have to be sure to find some way to avoid him in school. Looking up from her deep thoughts, the eldest Tendo found that the tables of the fruit parlor were sparkling, and Unazuki's glass was cleaned and set next to the sink, but she was still cleaning the same table she'd started at.

"Unazuki-chan?" she asked, looking around again. No one was there. "Oh, I hope I didn't upset her."

Sighing slightly, the slightly distracted Waitress left the room, switching off the lights.

-CM-

The next day, Ukyo Kuonji listlessly flipped an okonomiyaki with her giant spatula, sending it onto a plate and then sliding that over the counter to a waiting customer. Even though her attention wasn't really in the movement, she'd been making the things for years and she didn't make a single mistake.

Ever since Ranma had come to talk to her a week ago, she'd been distracted. A substantial amount of the problem had been what Ranma had said to her, but it wasn't the major problem. No, that was the fact that her waiter was missing. Konatsu had been missing before. He disappeared for a few days at a time on a regular basis, but he usually told her how long he'd be gone and when he'd be back. Plus, he'd been gone for almost a week now, which was longer than he'd ever been gone before.

She shook her head. She did not miss Konatsu. Of course not. With that, the phone next to the cash register rang, abruptly jolting her out of her thoughts. "Hello, Ucchan's Okonomiyaki," she said, trying to sound cheerful. Her face immediately locked itself into a frown as she listened to the response.

"Ukyo, this is your father," came the voice from the other side of the phone. While she listened, she left her left hand on auto-pilot, keeping the okonomiyaki on the grill from burning.

"What do you want," she snapped, annoyed. Her father was the holder of her family's honor, but she really didn't feel like giving him much respect at the moment.

The older man didn't comment on his daughter's rudeness. "It seems a highly placed family has taken some interest in the Saotome boy and is trying to settle all of the engagements."

"So you're going to let me out of that stupid order to kill Ranma?" Ukyo returned, hopefully.

Her father growled. "That order was not stupid, it was, and still is, a matter of the honor of the Kuonji clan! No, this will not end it, I just wished to warn you that you should be quiet about it when you kill the boy. We are a ninja clan, after all."

"I'm not killing Ranma," Ukyo said, angrily. Before the man could retort, she continued. "I already tried once and failed. Afterwards, I promised not to threaten him again."

"What?" her father demanded, furious. "But this is a matter of the family…"

He was cut off. "You know what I think it is?" Ukyo asked, her voice beginning to rise. As customers turned to face her, she began to wish she'd taken the call in the back room but continued talking anyways. "I think it's the matter of an old man who's angry that he got fooled twelve years ago, that's what I think it is. I made a promise to Ranma that I wouldn't touch him and I'm going to keep it!"

"I see..." Mr. Kuonji quietly said. Ukyo braced for his condemnation of her for disobeying her clan head, but she really didn't care anymore. "Well, I see that I was wrong to leave this task in your hands. I'll have to take care of it myself." Ukyo couldn't help the derogatory snort that escaped her at that comment. "Is something humorous, Ukyo?" he asked, coolly.

"Yeah," Ukyo said, before she could stop herself. "Ranma could flatten you in about thirty seconds."

Mr. Kuonji was obviously angry, but he kept his voice under control, unlike Ukyo who'd been shouting for the last few seconds. "Well, if that's true then I'll apologize to you and drop your honor debt, since it would be unrealistic to expect you to handle the boy. If it isn't, however, the consequences of disobedience to the clan will be severe."

Ukyo snorted. Her relationship with her father had been pretty well destroyed by the events of the past few weeks, so the idea of having Ranma beat him to a pulp was appealing. Plus, it would be a sure way to secure her name and future. "That's fine with me."

"Oh, and don't go warning the boy that I'm coming," the older man said casually, before hanging the phone up. In that moment, Ukyo's frustration with the whole situation, Konatsu, her father and Ranma overwhelmed her and she flicked an okonomiyaki she'd been preparing violently into the front door of the restaurant with a loud curse.

-CM-

Haruka entered Setsuna's house, having left school before Ranma. Apparently, he'd selected Fridays as his Juku days, so it'd take him a couple of hours to get home.

She set her school bag down and entered the living room, however when she did so she saw Nodoka standing there alone. This in itself wasn't a surprise. The junior high school had started classes yesterday and Setsuna wasn't home from work yet. What was surprising was that Nodoka had an expectant look on her face and a clothes hanger in her hands. Before the blonde could give voice to any questions, the older woman attacked.

Haruka was reluctant to go along with Nodoka at first, but after a few words of explanation she was grinning. Even so, though, she thought that the auburn haired woman enjoyed 'prettying her up' far too much.

-CM-

Ranma walked into the small library that hosted the Juku, bored. When he'd been in Furinkan he hadn't cared much about school, and to tell the truth he still didn't, but he thought that he should probably take it seriously this time, even if it was as boring as dirt.

His eyes caught for a second at the corner of the room, where a girl with blue-black hair sat reading a book. For a second he thought it was Akane, but the youngest Tendo had darker hair and was taller and more muscular. This girl looked fifteen at the oldest and he wondered why she was here.

Shrugging off his curiosity, he sat down at a nearby table and waited for the class to begin.

A little while later, after the teacher had introduced himself and the basics of the class had been laid out, he'd informed the students, or more accurately Ranma and the girl in the corner who was apparently also new, that the students of the Juku were organized into groups of two for the self study portion. And since they were the only ones free they were partners. Since the girl had a stack of books about half her size on the table, Ranma moved over and sat next to her.

"Hi, I'm Ranma," he introduced, settling his own much smaller stack of books next to hers.

"Ami," the girl said, quietly. She seemed pretty shy and he hoped desperately that she didn't intend to start chasing him. Then again, he was probably being paranoid. After all, the only one who'd chased him without an engagement was Kodachi, and this girl was both much more sane looking and a little younger.

"Hey, why're you here?" he asked, bluntly, before realizing what he'd said and clarifying it. "I mean, this class is supposed to be to help high school and college students, and you don't look any older than 15."

The girl blushed. "I already passed the ones for the earlier grades," she answered, then noticed Ranma looking at her with his eyebrow raised. "I like school, and it's never too early to get started on higher grades. I've already got most of this year's assignments finished."

"But… you just started school yesterday," Ranma responded, half stunned. The girl, Ami, obviously wasn't bragging but just stating a fact. If there was a scholastic equivalent to his martial arts ability, it would definitely be this girl.

"Excuse me, you at the back. Please begin the work that's been assigned!" the teacher said from the front of the room as he noticed Ranma and Ami's conversation.

The two immediately got down to studying and Ranma found that Ami's advanced knowledge for her own age made her only a bit more knowledgeable on some subjects than he was, though she was a lot quicker to figure things out. It definitely made it easier for him though, since he could follow her interpretations and then he had no trouble doing the problems himself.

The session was interrupted once by the sound of a small computer Ami had beeping, but she quickly silenced it and they continued on.

-CM-

Ami Mizuno sighed in relief as Ranma exited the library. He seemed like a perfectly nice person, but her computer had given a signal related to him earlier, and this made her nervous. Gathering her books and stuffing them quickly into her book bag, she slung it over her shoulder and almost fell over. Maybe she should have taken fewer books. Shrugging it off, she quickly left the building herself, heading over to a nearby bench.

Opening the Mercury Computer, she checked the message it contained. It hadn't been high priority, which had been why she hadn't bothered making an excuse to check it during class, but she thought that she should probably check it quickly.

As the report came up onto the screen, she frowned. The computer had detected two things out of the ordinary. One was a very high life energy level. This, in itself, was a good thing. Most Dark Kingdom or related threats tended to have unnaturally low levels of life force. The second report caused her eyebrow to raise. The older boy had some sort of magical field around him that she couldn't identify.

This could be a problem, and she'd have to bring it up during the next Senshi meeting. Luckily that meeting would take place tomorrow.

-CM-

Ranma entered the house, dropping his pack next to Haruka's and then looked up… whereupon his eyes popped wide open.

Haruka was standing at the base of the stairs, Her short hair styled a little and her face lightly made up. She also wore a yellow blouse and knee length blue skirt. It wasn't the most overwhelmingly feminine outfit, but like Ukyo, when Haruka dressed even a little like a girl it had a profound impact.

"Guh?" Ranma articulated, sounding a lot like Haruka had the first time she'd seen Ranma's girl side all dressed up.

"So you like it, eh?" the blonde said dryly when noticing his caveman imitation. At his numb nod, she laughed and walked up to him. "Come on."

Ranma just shrugged, and allowed Haruka to lead him out of the house, never noticing the grinning Nodoka behind him. Setsuna should have also been here by this point, but she hadn't shown up.

-CM-

A few minutes later, after Ranma had gotten back a little of his common sense, he finally got his mouth to articulate properly. "So, why'd ya do this? I mean I didn't think ya liked dressing like this."

Haruka smiled. "Well, I won't do it very often, so enjoy it."

"Yeah, but I thought I was supposed ta be the girl for our next date," Ranma said, then continued at Haruka's frown "Not that I'm complainin."

"Ranma, what day is it?" Haruka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Erm," Ranma said, searching his mind for the answer. He'd seen Hiroshi's girlfriend, Yuka, ask him this question and when he'd eventually said he couldn't remember she'd hauled off and slapped him. He doubted Haruka would do that, but still he scrambled to find an answer. First, he tried one of the ones Hiroshi had thrown out.

"It's the anniversary of when we first met?" he guessed.

Haruka blinked. The boy was actually right, or almost so. They'd met almost a month ago, within a few days at the very least, but that hadn't been what she was talking about. "You mean you honestly don't know what day it is?" she continued, sounding disbelieving.

"Yeah, I guess so," Ranma responded, sheepishly.

"It's your birthday, Ranma!" Haruka exclaimed.

The boy looked surprised, before opening up his wallet and checking his ID. "Oh, yeah." He said, feeling a little like an idiot.

"How could you have forgotten about that?" Haruka continued, laughing.

"The old man didn't really think of celebratin birthdays, so I sorta forgot about it a while ago," Ranma admitted.

It just didn't come up in Nerima, though he should have thought that it was coming up at some time soon. He'd arrived at the Tendo place shortly after turning sixteen, and had spent almost two years there so turning eighteen a month after he left really shouldn't have been a surprise. He just hadn't expected anything, since his seventeenth birthday had been a side-affair without much, apart form a gift from Kasumi.

"That still don't tell me why you're dressed like that," he continued, his mind returning to its previous track.

"I'm taking you to an all you can eat restaurant for dinner, and I figured you should get to be a guy on your birthday. Think of it as my present to you. Is that alright with you?" Haruka said, sounding a bit sarcastic near the end.

"Yeah, it's fine so long as ya tell me when yers is comin up, since I'll probably forget about it," Ranma countered.

Haruka laughed. "Sounds fine to me."

-CM-

"I can't believe you can dance that well," Haruka said as she and Ranma returned to Setsuna's house later that night. She had been taught how to dance as a matter of course, no matter how much she complained, but Ranma's skill in the art had surprised her.

"Well, there was this martial arts ballroom dancer who showed up a few months ago," Ranma said, shrugging.

Haruka was inclined to ask if he was joking, until she saw that his face was perfectly straight. Once again she wondered at the strangeness of Nerima. The two entered the house quietly, noticing that the lights were all off. After creeping up the stairs, they looked at each other for a few moments, before kissing. They had done this a few times by now and Ranma thought that he should be developing an immunity to the stunning effect. This immunity hadn't quite manifested however, and for about five seconds he knew how Tofu Sensei felt.

He shrugged himself out of his trance, and headed for his room only to stop at the door and look at the inside in a state of confusion.

"Hey Ranma, you aren't going to believe this but…" Haruka started, walking up next to him before seeing into the room as well.

Walking inside, Ranma headed to the head of the massive oak double bed that was there, picking up a small red card that was hanging from one of the top posts. He flipped it over, one side being blank, and read it. "I thought I should remedy the error I made earlier. Happy Birthday. Signed: Setsuna." Underneath the writing, there was a small smiley face, it's right eye drawn in a wink. "Let me guess, your bed's gone." At Haruka's nod, Ranma handed her the card and mumbled, "I'm gunna kill Setsuna tomorrow."

"What are you doing?" the blonde asked, seeing the pigtailed martial artist rummaging through his pack in the closet.

"I'm gunna get my futon and set it up downstairs," Ranma responded, pulling the rolled-up thin mattress out of the pack.

"You don't have to do that," Haruka said, walking over and taking it. "I'll go." Ranma, of course, refused. The minor argument went on for about five minutes before Haruka got frustrated.

"C'mon," she said, grabbing Ranma and pulling him towards the bed.

"What're you doin?" he yelped, as he let her sit him down.

Look, neither of us are going to give up on this, and I'm tired. Let's just use the bed," Haruka decided, pulling the covers away from the head of the bed on the other side and climbing in.

"But…" Ranma protested, but was quickly silenced by Haruka, who tugged him down to a lying position. He could have resisted, of course, but really didn't want to. He crawled under the covers on his own side of the bed, and within a few seconds was asleep. Somehow he was a lot more comfortable than usual.

-CM-

From the Gates of Time, Setsuna grinned at the sight of Ranma and Haruka sleeping. She knew that her relentless teasing of the couple wasn't precisely what was expected of a tens of thousands of years old being, but then, most of them didn't see their own imminent deaths in dozens of timelines.

Recently she'd been seeing one event clearly in the future histories of other lines. Normally, it was hard to see enough of a line, close enough to her own time and situation, to use it to predict much. However, she'd gotten lucky, if that word could possibly be applied to such a thing, and caught a brief glimpse of a falling helicopter.

Sailors Neptune and Uranus were in the pilot's cabin, and as she'd watched, their version of Pluto had teleported in and used the forbidden time stop spell. She didn't know much about that spell, since all she'd ever been told was that it would kill her instantly if she used it incorrectly, and almost ANY use was an incorrect one.

She had had a full, or perhaps overly-full, life, at over 15,000 years. and didn't really have a problem with her impending doom. She'd ensured as much of the Senshi's safety as she could, and if she had a little fun before she went, she was sure no one would begrudge her that.

-CM-

Toltiir watched bemused by what Setsuna have done, and watched her concern intently as she watches her possible death from his well, his tail swishing back and forth very happy. It seemed that Setsuna finally have stumbled upon something he wanted to show her.

The God of Mischief and Chaos have been accused of many things, but heartless and callous were not among them. Now, whimsical, that is something entirely different. He wasn't about to let his side project for amusement to end so quickly with the death of the main subjects, not when there was so much fun left undone.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Minako or a Demon, hmm, tough choice.

"Kaolinite..."

A red-haired woman in a skimpy black and red outfit with a white lab coat draped over it, walked into the middle of a dark room, facing a man in a lab coat who was busy with preparing something on a lab desk. The man's face couldn't be seen, only his reflecting glasses visible in the darkness.

"You called, Sir?" the woman asked. She'd do everything for him and right now had the time for it, with the bothersome girl being in school for hours to come.

"Yes, Kaolinite. The Daimon egg is now complete, and needs to be tested," the shadowed man said, holding a vial in his hand, with what looked like a little ectoplasm pulsing within the liquid which submerged it. "You must find a subject with a pure heart crystal to extract."

"A pure heart crystal?" Kaolinite wondered. Unlike the Professor, she didn't know everything and wondered what exactly the purpose was.

The Professor seemed to have expected this question. "Yes... The one who's in possession of the Holy Grail can conquer the world. This grail appears once three talismans, a sword, a mirror and a mystic orb, are put together. And these three talismans which we need, are hidden within the pure hearts of people."

"So we have to find them and take away their crystals to reveal the talismans and please our great Master," Kaolinite concluded.

"Exactly. I finally created a creature capable of this feat, but for now it needs a test run to see if everything is right in the formula," the Professor explained.

The woman smiled. "I believe I've already found a good subject to test it on, Professor," she said,

"Oh, who?" the man asked, curiously.

"The Tendo girl. You know, the one who causes Tofu-sensei to space out," the redhead explained. During her visits to the school to get the brat there, she'd observed the new teacher and his interesting reaction. She was dead sure that such an innocent woman had to have a pure heart.

"Oh yes, Ono's girlfriend. I can even observe the process personally... I'm glad that I never act like he does!" the Professor said, before starting to cackle manically. As he did so, a red smiling mouth seemed to become visible from the shadow of his face.

"Yes, you don't act like him at all…" Kaolinite muttered quietly, a large sweat drop falling down the back of her head as she looked at her cackling boss.

The shadowed man poured the vial into a beaker with a red liquid over a Bunsen burner. The organism within condensed, pulsed, and grew until it formed into a ovular shape with a crystalline surface. The heat from the fast mitosis of the cells broke the beaker that contained it.

He watched it hover to a pipe in the ceiling. "Go... show your worth and soon this world will be ours! Ha ha ha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Accompanied by the maniacal laughter of the one called Professor as the cacophony of departure, the Daimon egg floated up through the sewers toward its intended target: Kasumi Tendo.

-CM-

Akira Kuonji grunted in annoyance as he slammed his phone down. That was the fifth time he'd come close to finding information about Ranma Saotome, and the fifth time that the information had proven to be false. It was almost like someone was laying out false trails specifically to mislead him.

He sighed. He'd wanted to have some idea where to find Ranma. Well, some idea that involved an area smaller than the entire Minato ward, at least. He knew that his child wouldn't tell him, even if he called her back. It looked like he'd have to hunt the boy down himself, and that would be hard since he didn't even know what he looked like anymore.

Getting up from his chair in the back of his yatai, he reached up into a hollow of the roof and withdrew a gleaming steel battle spatula and a bandoleer of mini spatulas. Putting them both on, he closed the cart's shutters and picked it up by the front handles in preparation to move it into storage. He would exact his clan's revenge on the Saotomes, come hell or high water.

-CM-

Rei smiled as Makoto entered the shrine, holding a box that she knew was full of food. Most of it would be devoured by Usagi, but the bit she could get would certainly be good. Her grandfather was in the fire room, Yuuichiro was out trying to get a bar to let him play his guitar there, and she wasn't quite sure where Konatsu was but she hadn't seen the cross-dressing boy all morning.

"Hi, Mako-chan," she said, greeting the brown-haired girl and taking the box from her.

"Hi Rei," Makoto said, before warning "There's liquid in there, so try and keep it level, okay?"

Rei nodded before carefully taking the box into the living room, where the meeting was to take place. Minako arrived a few moments later and Artemis took a position near the door to watch for anyone coming into the room, while still being able to hear and contribute to the conversation.

Ami arrived next, carrying her usual pile of books for after the meeting when she'd make all the other girls study. None of them really minded this, however. The blue-haired girl was a good part of the reason why they were doing reasonably well in school even with the burden of leading a double-life.

"So, how long do you think the meatball head'll take today?" Rei asked, reaching over to open the box containing Makoto's food. To her surprise, she found several bowls of ramen inside.

"Rei, that's not nice," Ami said chidingly as she opened her computer and started typing.

"Well, you know what they say. Most things never change," Minako said cheerfully. The others looked at her in surprise for a moment. That expression had actually been pretty close to correct.

"So what's with the ramen, Makoto?" Rei asked, dropping the subject of Usagi's lateness.

Makoto shrugged. "I thought it'd be a nice change," she said, though she was blushing a bit.

Minako, self proclaimed Senshi of Love, caught this immediately. "I think she made it because that's what that cute chef she likes cooks." She was rewarded by an increase in her friend's blush. It was at this moment that Usagi arrived. She'd apparently run right into the shrine and down to Rei's room, as she skidded in at full speed.

"Sorryi'mlateguysIdidn'tgetupontime!" she babbled as Luna jumped off of her shoulder and to the floor, where she immediately walked over to join Artemis.

"What else is new?" Rei remarked, causing a hurt pout from her best friend.

Usagi's hurt expression immediately faded however, when she caught sight of the ramen bowls in the middle of the room. About half a second later, she'd pulled up a cushion between Rei and Ami and was digging in.

"Now that everyone's here," Ami said, brushing one of Usagi's pigtails from where it had fallen across her keyboard when she sat down "Should we get started?"

"Started?" Usagi asked, taking a break from her rapid eating to glance at the blue-haired girl. "But we beat the Dark Moon, there's no Senshi business to talk about right now, is there?"

"There have been a few more random Youma attacks lately than usual," Makoto contributed, remembering the one that had almost killed her before Mousse had rescued her.

"There isn't another new enemy, is there?" The blonde rabbit girl asked, biting her fingernails.

"We can't jump to that conclusion. It could very well be just leftover from the Dark Kingdom. These after all still lurk around," Ami said, but frowned. "Though I've found something odd recently that could indicate that there could be something..."

"What is it?" Minako, who'd been quiet so far, asked as she leaned forward.

"At my Juku yesterday, there was a boy who radiated an unidentified magical field. I normally wouldn't be worried about that, except for the fact that Ail and An infiltrated our school without being noticed before," Ami explained.

Everyone blushed when remembering the affair with the Doom Tree. That the two aliens had managed to completely fool them the entire time was a point of great embarrassment to them. Thankfully they'd been able to solve the whole matter peacefully and some weeks later even managed to fin another survivor of their people. They wondered if Fiore by now had caught up with the two.

"So what's this guy's name?" Minako asked.

"He said his name is Ranma," Ami responded, before noticing Rei's surprised look. "Something wrong, Rei?"

"I don't know," Rei said, her eyes narrowing. "There's a new guest at the shrine who says he knows a Ranma, but I didn't think Konatsu was a bad person."

"Maybe we could ask him and see if it's the same one," Usagi asked, cheerfully. "I'll go find him."

"Usagi, wait!" Rei called, before a shape suddenly detached itself from one of the room's walls. She gaped at the form of the male Kunoichi, who had been hiding in the room for the entire meeting. "Erm, Konatsu? What are you doing in here?" she yelled, shocked.

"I recall telling you that I was a ninja, Rei-san. Finding others' secrets is part of my job," the boy said, seeming to see nothing wrong with his actions.

"But…" the shrine maiden sputtered, looking around at the others for help. The Senshi had been keeping their identities secret for quite some time, and now it seemed that her new house guest had found out within a week. "Look, Konatsu. How much did you hear?"

"I heard you and your friends discussing the defeat of demons and the possibility of a new threat from a person named Ranma," the boy said, calmly. "From this I assume that you are devil hunters. Since there is only one group of devil hunters in the district, and your friend referred to the meeting as 'Senshi business,' you are the Sailor Senshi."

In a lot of ways, Konatsu wasn't precisely the sharpest tool in the shed. He didn't have much education in society outside of his old tea house, and most forms of mathematics were completely beyond him. But when it came to figuring out other people's business, he was as he was trained to be, very good. Too good for the people whose business he was butting into.

"Look, Konatsu. It's very important that you don't tell anyone about that," Ami said, having picked up the name of the girl, or was it boy, in front of her from Rei and deciding that denying the facts now would be pointless. "If everyone knew who the Senshi were, they could go after our families or friends in order to stop us."

The ninja nodded. "That is understandable. I will not tell your secret to anyone aside from my mistress, Ukyo-sama, and only her if she orders me to do so."

All of the Senshi didn't look too pleased at this response, but they really couldn't do much about it. They had been careful not to let anyone know their identities because, truthfully, they couldn't really do anything other than ask anyone who found out not to tell.

"I guess that'll have to do," Rei muttered, annoyed. She couldn't believe that Konatsu would sneak into the room and listen to a group of teenaged girls during a study meet.

"So," Makoto asked, looking at Konatsu in a mixture of curiosity and wariness. "Who's this girl?"

"It's a long story," Rei said, but as Usagi stared at her levelly, she finally started telling it, baths and all.

About five minutes later, Makoto and Minako were sitting there with sparkling eyes. Evidently, as Rei had thought before, they thought that Konatsu's story was really romantic. Usagi and Ami were just looking confused, though Usagi was leaning towards the reaction of the other two Senshi.

Ami was annoyed. Konatsu had managed, unintentionally, to completely derail the meeting. She knew Makoto, and especially Minako. Within a few seconds... yeah. She could see the gleam in the girl's eye now. Sighing, she looked back into her computer screen. The other Senshi were her best friends, but some of them could be irritating at times.

"I got it!" Minako shouted, startling everyone other than Ami. "I'll help Konatsu impress Ukyo!"

"What?" Rei asked, flatly.

"Yeah, I'm sure I can get him and Ukyo together! Just leave it to Minako Aino, Senshi of LOVE!" The other Senshi and Konatsu, who had been helping Rei tell her story, all looked nervous, but the ninja looked hopeful.

"You'll really help me impress Ukyo-sama, Minako-san?" he asked, suddenly appearing in front of her with his eyes turned up to her pleadingly.

The blonde blinked. It was really too bad Ukyo wasn't a boy, since Konatsu would catch her easily in that case, given the amount of cute he was radiating. She would have to do something about that. "Of course I will."

"Oh, thank you Minako-san," the boy said, before bowing several times.

"Poor guy," Rei mumbled, her anger about his previous spying seeming to fade a little. Ami had to agree.

-CM-

Ranma left his music class, his backpack slung over his shoulder.

He'd had a pretty good day, so far. Setsuna had shown up this morning, after spending the weekend apparently on a business trip. Personally he thought that she'd been trying to avoid him after her little prank on Friday night, though he wasn't really inclined to say anything anymore. Hitting the button to call the elevator, since the music rooms were at the top of the building, he quickly boarded and headed down.

A few floors lower, the door opened and someone entered. Ranma's eyes widened as he saw them. "K, Kasumi?" he stuttered.

Kasumi was just as surprised, but giggled. "Ranma-kun, you sound like Tofu-sensei," she said, cheerfully. "I didn't know you came here."

"Yeah, well..." Ranma said, unsure of what to say. "I didn't really know either, ta tell the truth."

The girl laughed again, and then did something that surprised Ranma. She hugged him. It wasn't a romantic hug, he'd gotten really good at avoiding those. She just seemed really glad to see him. "I missed you, Ranma-kun."

"Aw, jeaz..." Ranma said, scratching the back of his head. "I missed you too, Kasumi," he continued, sheepishly. The girl let go of him and stood next to him for a few seconds, before he had to say something. "So how's Akane and Nabiki?"

"Nabiki is acting the same as she always does," Kasumi replied, knowing that Ranma would understand. Then she frowned a little when she thought of Akane. "Akane… is hard to judge."

"She ain't in trouble or somethin, is she?" Ranma asked, concerned.

"Oh, no. She's fine," the eldest Tendo thought for a moment before speaking again. "Your leaving hurt her quite a bit, Ranma-kun."

The pigtailed boy looked down. "Yeah, I kinda thought it would..." he responded, sadly.

"Ranma-kun, it wasn't all because of you," the eldest Tendo sister said, trying to cheer the boy up. "Kuno-san started his challenges again, but he left and came here to look for you, and there was Ryoga."

'Yeah, there was Ryoga,' Ranma thought. But wait, Kuno was here? He and Kasumi got off of the elevator, heading towards a small area where there was a few sets of lockers. They talked for a few more minutes, Ranma learning a bit about what had happened in Nerima while Kasumi found out what he'd been doing since he'd left.

As the two reached the brown haired girl's locker, she stopped and looked at Ranma. "Despite your leaving having hurt Akane and caused some problems, I think it was probably the right thing to do," she said in a surprisingly sure voice.

"Huh?" Ranma responded, blinking. He'd been in the process of leaving when Kasumi spoke, but quickly turned to face her. He honestly wasn't used to a statement that certain coming from the girl.

"Sometimes, people have to be unhappy for a while for the greater good, and it sounds like you, Mousse and probably Ukyo are better off for it, at least." Normally Kasumi didn't make associations like that, however she understood the idea of sacrifice for the greater good. She'd been doing it for her family for over eight years, after all.

Ranma was about to respond, when a strange dark smoke began to emanate from the bag Kasumi had just placed in her locker. "What the hell's that?" he asked, pointing over the girl's shoulder.

Kasumi immediately turned around, however, the smoke seemed to have surrounded the bag and begun to grow rapidly. The Daimon, which had implanted itself in the bag that afternoon, had finally manifested. Within about three seconds there was some sort of monster standing in front of the girl. The creature was vaguely female in shape and consisted of various items of school supplies and pieces of backpack that were all jumbled together. It's arms and legs looked like the straps of the pack, with clawed appendages at their ends.

Kasumi tried to scream, but the creature lashed out with one arm, picking her up off the floor. Ranma was moving before the arm reached its target, but ended up getting there too late.

The straps of the Daimon lashed out at Kasumi binding her legs and arms together. A zipper on the chest of the Daimon unzipped to reveal a black star. Small black tendrils shot out from the black star, and grabbed something from within Kasumi's chest, and it pulled out not so kindly, accompanied by Kasumi's screams of pain, to reveal a small white-glowing crystal.

The creature tossed the girl away and Ranma barely managed to catch her. "Hey, you okay, Kasumi?" he asked, shaking her shoulder. There was no response. Scanning her aura quickly, he got a shock. It seemed that she barely had any, and what she did have was leaking out of her body. At this rate, she wouldn't survive for more than an hour.

At this point, the demon tried to exit the alcove where the lockers were, but ended up making a loud banging noise that drew Ranma's attention. Since he was still in the mindset to read auras as he turned towards it, he quickly realized that the crystal in its hand contained most of Kasumi's.

"Hey you, give that back!" he shouted, as he moved quickly to block the creature's path of escape. The creature didn't respond. The pigtailed martial artist jumped at the creature, trying to retrieve the crystal from one of its strap tentacles, but it had a good grip on it and he didn't want to exert too much pressure for fear of breaking the crystal and possibly killing Kasumi.

During the martial artist's distraction, the Daimon swatted him off of its body with its other tentacles, sending him flying into a wall on the other side of the hall. Fortunately, the school was currently pretty empty of students and he didn't hit anyone.

"That's it!" he muttered, figuring that he'd try a Moko Takabisha. After all, this demon didn't seem to absorb the chi from his limbs like the last one he'd fought, so it was possible that chi-based projectiles could hurt it.

"Moko Takabisha!" he shouted, as he cupped his hands and fired a bolt of chi at the thing's stomach. His eyes widened in horror as it brought Kasumi's crystal to block the blast. Fortunately it didn't seem to do any damage. The energy just got sucked in and the crystal's brightness increased.

"Damn, so it can block my chi blasts, too," Ranma cursed.

As he tried to think of something else to do, his right hand fell to his side, and brushed against something in his pocket. It was that thing that Sailor Senshi had given him. "Well, if I ever needed ta fight one of these things, it's now," he said, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the small blue-green pen.

Unsure of how to use it, he held it up in front of his face as if toward the demon off, and some words came to his mind. Without hesitation, he raised the hand and called them out. "Neptune Planet Power, Make up!"

He mentally winced. That sounded pretty corny. All thoughts of how strange the activation phrase was were quickly forgotten, as a column of water formed around his body, instantly triggering his curse. She felt her clothes dissolving and reforming, as her hair came loose from its pigtail and fell down her back. When everything was finished, she found herself standing with her legs apart and one arm raised.

The first thing she noticed after the transformation was that her arm was now covered with a white glove. When she looked down, she saw that she had a large blue-green bow on her chest, with a hemispherical crystal in the middle. Below that was a skirt of a similar color, and a white leotard covered her upper body. In other words, she was wearing a similar uniform to Pluto's.

After a second of shocked silence, she made a promise. If this helped her rescue Kasumi, then she could deal with it. She'd worn worse during fights before, the Rythmic Gymnastics match was an event she held in especially bad memory. If it didn't, however, she would find Sailor Pluto and do bad things to her.

Shrugging, the newly transformed Sailor Neptune jumped into the fight.

-CM-

At the gates, where she had, as Ranma suspected, been hiding for the past few days, Setsuna smiled. One of the outer Senshi had been awakened, now only one more to go, excepting Saturn. She shuddered. She just hoped that one would never have to see the light of day.

-CM-

In her small dark room, Hotaru Tomoe sneezed softly before returning to her homework.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Soldiers

Neptune frowned as she squared off with the Daimon, trying to think of a strategy.

When she'd used the transformation pen, she'd thought that it was some sort of demon banishing charm, or that it'd let her attacks do damage. She hadn't expected to be added to the ranks of the magical girl defenders of the district. Still, it looked like that was what had happened, and she'd have to deal with it. She tried to gather her Chi into her limbs in order to attack, but found that it wouldn't respond. Her entire chi reserve seemed to be concentrated into the middle of her chest, only enough to keep her alive and on her feet coursing through her body.

"How the heck am I gunna fight without chi enhancement?" she mumbled, before deciding that she'd better try, since she had no idea how to deactivate the transformation.

Charging in on the demon, she lashed out with a quick punch that surprised her with the speed at which it moved. Her muscles, unaided, shouldn't have been able to work that well, at least not without severe strain. Her second surprise came when the fist landed, a pulse of… something… shooting through it and sending the creature staggering back with a bellow of pain.

She smiled. Maybe she could use this transformation, after all.

She tried to get Kasumi's energy crystal out of the thing's hand again, but it still had it clenched in a death grip and she didn't want to put the crystal under too much stress. Shrugging, she decided to test her new ability to actually hurt this thing with physical attacks, bringing her hand down in a knife hand chop on its wrist joint.

The joint gave with a sharp crack and the Daimon's hand fell open, dropping the crystal for Neptune to scoop up. Unfortunately, during this distraction she was hammered across the side by the enraged creature's other arm. The force of the blow sent her rolling over the floor, but it didn't seem to hurt as much as it had before the transformation and she quickly sprang up with Kasumi's crystal in hand.

"Okay, let's see if you can still absorb attacks without the crystal!" she shouted, cupping her hands. Seemingly instinctively, a different set of words than usual came to her lips, and she felt something other than chi forming between her palms.

"Deep Submerge!" She shouted, letting loose what looked like a huge ball of water. She gaped as she saw the thing. It had to be almost as tall as she was, and when it hit the demon it seemed to vaporize, turning back into Kasumi's bag. She felt a brief pang of regret for killing the demon, but it was quickly forgotten as she saw the crumpled form of Kasumi on the floor.

Walking over to the oldest Tendo and kneeling, the newly transformed Senshi looked down at the crystal, trying to figure out what to do with it to restore it to the girl's body. Her eyes were caught by the shimmering facets of the glowing item. It was mostly white, with small sparks of yellow, blue and gold floating through it. She smiled. If this was Kasumi's essence, it was definitely as pure as the girl. Shaking her head, she tried holding the crystal over the girl's body and it immediately floated out of her hand and down into its proper place.

Neptune's eyebrows went up as she saw the aura filling the girl's chi paths. Something about it looked strange. She blinked, and it seemed to return to normal. She was about to stand, when the brown haired girl's eyes flickered open and the two ended up locking gazes.

'Oh crap, she's gunna recognize me in this thing…' Neptune thought, barely suppressing a blush at the thought. The Senshi uniform may not have been the most revealing or embarrassing thing she'd ever worn, but it came close and Kasumi would surely tell Nabiki.

"Oh my..." Kasumi said, bringing one hand up to rub the side of her head. As her eyes focused, she saw a reddish blur above her. For a second she thought it was Ranma's girl-form's hair, but as the blurriness faded that idea also did. The girl who was looking down at her couldn't have been Ranma. She was wearing a gold tiara with a green stone in the middle, and her red hair was shorter and differently styled.

"Oh, you're one of the Sailor Senshi, aren't you?" she asked as she noticed the rest of the girl's outfit.

"Erm, yes. I'm Sailor Neptune," the girl said, looking nervous.

"My sister is a big fan of your group," Kasumi confided as the Senshi helped her up. She looked around the room, seeing her backpack sitting in one corner, slightly waterlogged. The demon was gone and she suspected that the Senshi had destroyed it.

"Oh, where is Ranma-kun?" she asked, as she noticed the absence of the pigtailed martial artist.

"He..." Neptune said, desperately trying to think up an excuse for why her male form wasn't here. "He was the one who went to get me. I told him to get out of here."

Kasumi wondered about that, briefly. It didn't seem like something Ranma would do, but why would the Senshi lie? "Thank you for saving me, Neptune-san," she said, finally.

"No problem," Neptune said, looking sheepish as she walked away.

"Could I ask you for a favor before you go?" Kasumi asked, stopping the redheaded Senshi in her tracks. Neptune turned back, seeing that the oldest Tendo had grabbed her pack and was rummaging through it for something. A few seconds later she came out with a half-dry piece of paper and a pen. "Could you sign an autograph for my sister Nabiki?"

The Ocean Senshi barely resisted a face fault, looking at Kasumi as if to say "You've got to be kidding," but she'd always had a hard time refusing requests from Kasumi. Taking the pen and paper, she quickly signed her Senshi name. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw her hand writing. Ranma's writing was normally pretty sloppy, but the name was written in flowing, elegant script. Granted, Ranma could have done it that way if she'd really wanted to, but she seemed to do it automatically.

"Here ya go, Kasumi," she said, handing the paper back. "Now I gotta go."

The brown haired girl accepted the paper, smiling. "Thank you again, Neptune-san," she thanked her, briefly wondering how the magical girl knew her name. Ranma must have told her.

-CM-

Professor Tomoe stared at the security footage of the school, an annoyed look on his face.

He'd pulled up the cameras around that Kasumi girl all day, hoping to see his Daimon's performance. Unfortunately it seemed that when the thing had actually attacked and some martial artist friend of the girl's had started to fight it off, the cameras in the area had suffered from technical problems. By the time they'd sorted themselves out, one of the Sailor Senshi had shown up.

The Daimon hadn't been built to withstand much magical damage -after all it was just a test model- and the Senshi had wiped it out easily. It wasn't a big loss, the girl's heart crystal hadn't contained one of the talisman, but it was still annoying. He had to smile a little, though.

The Daimon egg had done what it was supposed to, his formula was perfect. After a few minor adjustments, he could begin mass-producing them. He began laughing maniacally. The Death Busters soon would be in business.

-CM-

Sailor Neptune perched on the edge of a roof, distinctly nervous. She'd found that she could still roof hop as a Senshi, even without access to the majority of her chi, but her maximum levels of strength and speed were about five times less than she was used to. Granted, this was still substantially stronger than the average person, but it annoyed her.

This wasn't what was worrying her, however. That was the fact that she hadn't figured out how to get out of the Senshi outfit. She'd even tried using hot water, but it seemed to have no effect. If this damned thing had locked her curse, she'd have to do bad things to Pluto even though it had helped Kasumi, and if she was locked AND stuck in this fuku, the other Senshi would probably have to fear for her life.

The whole episode with prince Herb was still very present in her memory. The long time she'd been forced to stay a girl and the embarrassing results this had brought, with the long girlperiod allowing her cursed body to adapt to being female. No think, she had no wish to repeat that experience.

Neptune had experimented with taking the fuku off the normal way, but it seemed to have no seams, let alone buttons or other ways to get it off. The bottom part part could be adjusted, but that was only good for a bathroom break. She most likely could simply tear it off, but then she'd be naked and she didn't dare to try and sneak into the house like this.

Maybe she could go find some other Senshi, and ask them how to get out of the suit. "Pluto, where the hell are you?" she muttered, glaring out at the city.

"I'm right behind you," came a voice, causing the redhead to turn around, her leg coming up in a hard spin kick. The time Senshi brought up her staff, but it didn't make it up quite fast enough and she ended up flying across the roof.

"Oh crap, sorry 'bout that," Neptune apologised as the time Senshi skidded to a stop. She hadn't really intended to kick her like that. It'd been an automatic response to the surprise, but it had definitely been satisfying.

"It's fine," Pluto answered while standing up. "I'll just have to remember not to sneak up on you anymore. Now are you going to do that again, or can we talk?"

Neptune scratched the back of her head. "Well, that was mostly an accident, and yeah. I think we should probably talk. Ya wanna tell me why ya recruited me for yer little magical girl team? Oh, and more importantly, how the heck do I get outta this fuku without doing a striptease?"

Pluto smiled. "Getting out of the uniform is easy. Just touch the stone in the center of your bow and will it away. As for why I chose you, I didn't."

Neptune immediately followed Pluto's instructions and sighed in relief as she felt the Senshi uniform fading away and returning her normal clothes. She blinked in surprise as she felt her pigtail reform as well. Ranma quickly checked that everything fit right, or as closely to right as it ever did on her girl form, then looked back to Pluto.

"Wadda ya mean you didn't choose me? I mean ya gave me the stick thing and everything," she pointedly asked.

The Senshi of time pondered for a moment, before seeming to find the correct words. "The current Senshis are reincarnations of their previous forms. In a past life, you were Neptune, and you're the only one who can use the transformation pen to become Neptune again. It wasn't my, or anyone else's, choice to pick you or not pick you. You simply are."

"Okay, so in a past life I was this Senshi person," Ranma said, trying not to think that that probably meant her past self had been an actual girl. "So why didn't ya just tell me this in the first place?"

"Would you have taken the pen if you'd known that it would transform you into a Senshi when you used it?" Pluto asked, her left eyebrow raising. She was surprised by the response.

"Yeah, probably. I mean, I wouldn'ta done it unless I had to, but considering that Kasumi was in danger and it was the only way to save her, I'd do it. I mean, my personal pride ain't as important as someone's life, especially someone like Kasumi," the pigtailed redhead winced. She'd spoken truly, but she still didn't like the overly-frilled Senshi uniform one bit.

"Hmm, perhaps I misjudged you, Ranma," Pluto said, her surprise not evident on her face. "My question is, will you continue to fight as a Senshi in future? I believe that the outer Senshi are going to be needed soon and you are one of them. You can decline, of course. I cannot make you assume your role."

Ranma stood there for a minute, thinking. She was supposed to protect the weak and Pluto said she, as well as some other 'outer Senshi,' whoever they were, were going to be needed. Still, she didn't particularly like the idea of joining a magical girl team. Now THAT was the biggest understatement in history.

"I… I don't know," she said uncertainly. "I need time ta think about it."

"I understand..." Pluto said, raising her staff to teleport out. "Return back here, when you have decided. One last thing, your real identity should be kept a secret as our enemies will do anything to get at us, refer yourself as Neptune when you have transformed."

With that, the Senshi of Time vanished into the darkness, leaving one slightly confused redhead standing on the roof of a small office building.

-CM-

Later that night Ranma entered the Meiou house, once again in male form. He'd come close to fainting with relief when in civilian form, his curse had worked as it was supposed to. Also his chi had been released from the lock it had been put under when he was Neptune. That was a good thing, since it would have been hard for her to get off the roof Pluto had left her on if she hadn't been able to roof hop.

"Hey Ranma," Haruka, who was leaning back in a chair in the living room, called. "Where were you after school? I was waiting for you."

"Oh, sorry Haruka. One of those Youma ended up attackin a friend of mine," Ranma said without thinking.

"Wait, there was a Youma attack at the school?" The blonde asked, sitting up straight in surprise. She studied Ranma, noticing a few rips in his clothes from his fight with the creature before he'd transformed. "Are you all right? I mean last time you fought one it half killed you."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ranma tried to ease her fears, wincing as he noticed Nodoka, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking at him nervously. "One of the Senshi showed up and destroyed it."

"Yeah, considering the fact that they wear almost non-existent skirts and leotards, the Senshi are tougher than they look," Haruka said, before grinning. "They're pretty cute, though."

Ranma's eye twitched.

"Are you alright, Ranma?" Haruka asked in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." he muttered, not quite sure how to take Haruka's statement.

"So who was the friend who was attacked?" Nodoka asked, concerned, as she entered the living room.

"It was Kasumi," Ranma said, then quickly continued as Nodoka's worry increased. "She was fine last time I saw her, so don't worry."

The older woman frowned. "I don't know, Maybe I should go and see her to see if she's alright tomorrow."

Ranma shrugged. "Sure, it'd probably be a good idea, but I got no idea where she lives."

"I'll have to call Akane-chan or Nabiki and ask," Nodoka responded, causing Ranma to become apprehensive.

"Just remember not ta tell Nabiki where I am, in case she decides ta sell the information or somethin..." he mumbled.

"Oh, I'm sure Nabiki-chan wouldn't do that," Nodoka said, looking at Ranma reprovingly.

"I dunno..." the pigtailed boy said, flopping down on the couch next to Haruka. Oh well, considering the fact that almost everyone had already shown up, he doubted if Nabiki finding out where he was would cause a problem.

-CM-

In her room, Setsuna lay on her bed and thought about her encounter with Ranma earlier that night. It could have gone better, though she had doubted that it would. In fact, she had been sure that he would have rebelled against the idea of being a Senshi quite a bit when he first found out.

The reality had been quite the surprise. The, at the time, girl hadn't rejected the idea of being a Senshi outright as expected, but had asked for some time to think about it. From reading a report she had bought off of Nabiki for an exorbitant amount of money, one of the reasons that Kasumi could even go to college, and her brief glimpses of Ranma's past in the gates, Setsuna had picked up on one characteristic of Ranma. He couldn't be forced to do anything. Well, he could, but the results were often not what you wanted, and he would struggle with you the whole way.

For now she would have to wait and see what happened. Who knew, the Neptunian Senshi could decide on her, his... damn the pronouns regarding Ranma were confusing, their own that becoming a Senshi was necessary.

If Ranma didn't make that decision, she would have to interfere if only to save the other Senshi, but she really didn't want to. With these troubled thoughts swirling through her head, the time Senshi fell asleep.

-CM-

At the Furuhata residence, Kasumi got out of the furo after a long and restful bath, sighing in contentment. Today had been exciting, even though she hadn't managed to find Tofu. However, she could've done without whatever had been done to her. She'd never before felt such an intense pain -as if her innmost part had been ripped out- although there seemed to be no lasting injury.

She'd cut the wet part of the paper with that nice Sailor Senshi's signature off and sent the autograph with a letter to Nabiki. She hoped her sister liked it, considering how obsessed she was with the Senshi. No one else in the house knew about her secret cache of Sailor Senshi merchandise, but Kasumi had found it when cleaning under her bed one day. Well, she was just glad that Nabiki had an interest aside from making money.

Looking into the mirror above the sink as she toweled off her hair, the oldest Tendo stopped in surprise. There was some sort of light coming from her eyes. Leaning in and looking closer, she saw that her eyes were glowing faintly. "Oh my, what's happened?" she wondered, blinking. When her eyes opened again, the glow was gone. "I guess it was nothing..."

Shrugging, she finished drying herself off and went into the changing room to change clothes.

-CM-

Akira Kuonji stepped off of the train, looking around the station. He was getting a few strange looks due to the giant spatula that was slung over his shoulder, but he ignored those.

He'd stopped in Nerima, where he'd heard Nabiki Tendo tended to give people information, but it seemed that she was an ally to the Saotome boy, as she'd outright refused to tell him anything beforeslamming the door shut. It looked like he'd have to spend some time searching the Minato ward, from top to bottom if necessary.

As he walked down the street outside of the station, he heard something that stopped him in his tracks. "'Tis the chef Kuonji, what art thou doing in this ward at this time?"

Akira looked around, seeing a young man in a blue and black outfit, holding a bokuto." How do you know me?" He asked, suspiciously.

"Oh, I apologize good sir, I mistook the for another who wields a weapon of similar shape and size to yours," the boy said, calmly. "If you excuse me, I must continue my quest for the sorcerer Saotome."

Akira's eyes narrowed. "You know Ukyo?" he asked, thinking that she could be the only other person in the area who carried a large spatula as a weapon. "And you are looking for a Saotome?"

"Ah, Ukyo Kuonji. Surely the maker of the best Okonomiyaki in the land, if far too mannish for her own beauteous self. As for the foul sorcerer," the boy's face twisted into an angry scowl. "He has taken my loves from me and twisted even the most innocent of women to his own foul ends. He is the most evil of men, worthy of only a swift death, but he continues to avoid my righteous blade!"

Akira began to smile. "Perhaps we can help each other," he said, walking on and beckoning for the boy to follow.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Chi and Magic: a Crash Course

Nabiki Tendo stretched, cracking her back. She'd spent the past two hours balancing the family's budget, but it was finally looking like she could make it through the month. Truthfully, she'd done this twice by this point, but working with money was distracting to her, and she currently needed a distraction.

A day ago, Nodoka had called to ask where Kasumi was living and she'd managed to get the woman to admit that Kasumi had been attacked by some sort of demon. According to Ranma, who had been there to fight the monster, her older sister was fine now, but even so she was worried. Closing her ledger, she slid back from her desk and stood.

"Time to scrounge for something to eat," she muttered, looking warily into the hallway.

Ever since Kasumi had left, the Tendo house had been a much harder place to live in. Akane had tried very hard to fulfill the expectations, but she simply wasn't made for managing the domestic issues of such a big house. After a week and the house turning into a dump, Nabiki had had enough and forced her father with creative extortion to keep the house clean, so that Akane could concentrate on the other tasks.

Tramping down the stairs and past Genma and Soun's perpetual Shogi game, she smiled. The elder -or rather only- Saotome was still immobile and her father couldn't do anything on his own if his life depended on it so Ranma and Akane would be left alone by them for the next few weeks, at least. Even when the two were functional again, Nabiki wouldn't be the one to tell them where to find Ranma, even if she did know. She at least owed the boy that much, especially after he apparently helped Kasumi during the demon attack.

Entering the kitchen, the middle Tendo was surprised to see two plates set out. One was for her and the other was for Akane, who was busy at the stove. "It's curry," her younger sister said, looking over her shoulder with a slight smile.

Nabiki smiled, sliding into her seat. She was getting tired of curry, but as unbelievable as it seemed, Akane was a better cook than she was and homemade curry was cheaper than take out. Lifting a bite to her mouth, she bit into it cautiously, eyeing a cup of water next to her. Sometimes Akane still overloaded the spices.

"Hey, you've gotten better!" she said after chewing and swallowing the food.

"Thanks... Seems enough practise finally pays off," Akane said, blushing, before seeming to remember something. "Oh, we got a letter from Kasumi. I thought I'd wait until you got down to read it."

Nabiki's eyebrow rose slightly, though she wanted to jump out of her seat and run to read the note immediately. She was surprised that Akane had managed to resist doing that already, but her younger sister had seemed to exhibit a surprising level of maturity since Ranma left. She wasn't sure that was a good thing, however, as she was starting to remind her of how Kasumi had once acted.

"So let's take a look at the letter," she said, finally.

Akane nodded, reaching into the apron she had taken to wearing and withdrawing a large yellow envelope. "It's a little big," she commented as she laid it on the table.

Nabiki shrugged, slitting the envelope open with a convenient knife and sliding out the first piece of paper. It was a cheque, made out to Nabiki for about 60,000 Yen. It wasn't much, but she guessed it had to be Kasumi's entire paycheck after room and board.

Akane frowned. "What's this for?"

Nabiki shrugged. "I don't know, but we can use it," she said, taking the slip of paper and sticking it into a pocket. Akane was about to object, but was cut off by a glare from her sister. "We need this to help pay for food, and Kasumi knows that," she said, sharply. As Akane reluctantly nodded, Nabiki withdrew another piece of paper. This appeared to be the actual letter. Unfolding it, she began to read.

_"Hi, everyone. This is Kasumi. How are you? I got to Juuban safely and the Furuhatas have been very nice. The cheque I sent you was the extra money they insisted on paying me after my room and board, but I really don't need it so I thought you could use it. School is nice and I even ran into Tofu-sensei there. Isn't that great?_

_The teachers say I'm one of their best students. I'm sure they're just being nice, though._

_I saw Kuno-san here a while ago. He was looking for Ranma-kun, but he grabbed my friend Unazuki-chan by mistake. He really shouldn't do things like that, and Modoki-san, Unazuki-chan's older brother, filed a police report, but they haven't found him yet._

_Oh, I also met Ranma-kun. He's doing well, and even going to my school. A monster attacked the school today, but Ranma-kun and one of the Sailor Senshi fought it off. Oh, by the way, the piece of paper with the name on it is an autograph for Nabiki's Senshi item collection. I hope you like it, sister. There's also a list of recipes from the Crown Fruit Parlor for you to try, Akane-chan. Remember to read them carefully. Say hello to Daddy and Mr. Saotome for me, all right?_

_It's getting late, so I'm going to bed. I'll write to you again soon._

_Love, Kasumi."_

When Nabiki stopped reading the letter, the two sisters sat silent for a few seconds. Curious, she reached into the envelope and withdrew a ragged half sheet of what looked like a biology assignment. On the blank side, there was a person's signature, though instead of a name it said 'Sailor Neptune'. "Hmm, I've never heard of that Senshi before..." she muttered, though she thought there should be soldiers for the outer planets as well as the inners, so it made sense.

"So Kasumi's happy there," Akane said, jolting her sister out of her random thoughts.

"Yeah, I guess," Nabiki responded, before noticing that Akane had tears in her eyes. "Something wrong, sis?"

"They're all going away, aren't they?" Akane whispered, before standing from the table, her meal only half eaten, and turning to the counter to clean up the meal's refuse.

Nabiki frowned, trying to puzzle out precisely what that meant while looking at Kasumi. Wait, that wasn't Kasumi, it was Akane. The two looked different enough that she shouldn't have confused them, but Akane was wearing an apron and house dress, cleaning up the kitchen like Kasumi always used to.

That's when it hit her. When their mother died, Kasumi had promised to take care of the house for her and within a few weeks she'd started trying to do the chores and cooking, even if she'd been bad at it at the time. Within a few years, she'd been walking around with that vacant smile on her face, acting like the perfect housewife.

Was Akane doing the same thing now? Would she eventually just stand there, smiling and not particularly caring what was going on? And for what, their father? He had been out of it ever since their mother's death as well, but he'd been completely useless. She'd be gone to college by next year. She should have gone this year, but had used her own college fund to help Kasumi's effort. Looking back up at the softly humming blue-black haired girl who was cleaning the room, Nabiki made a promise to herself.

She wouldn't let Akane give up her life the way Kasumi had, and she wouldn't go down either. Finishing off her food, she stood and left the room, throwing a quick "Thank you" over her shoulder to Akane.

As she passed the living room, she glared harshly at its residents.

"Is something wrong, Nabiki-chan?" Soun asked, noticing the look.

"Nothing," she muttered, stomping upstairs and to her room. She had to make a few calls. It had taken the departure of Ranma and Kasumi for her to realize that the Tendo family was half way dead, but she wouldn't let it continue any longer.

-CM-

"You know, it was quite some time ago since the last time we did something like this together..."

It were simple words from Naru, but they managed to make Usagi feel incredibly guilty, especially when remembering why they were spending the afternoon together. Her other friends all had something to do. Mamoru was busy with college stuff, Ami had a report to write, Makoto was again off to flirt with that bespectacled boy and Minako and Rei were busy with their Konatsu-project.

It was then when she'd become painfully aware how much she'd been neglecting Naru when she'd caught herself thinking of Naru as a backup choice for spending the afternoon. The mere idea of treating Naru as a backup was shameful.

She hadn't thought about it before, but now it became painfully clear how far she and Naru had already drifted apart. She hadn't noticed it until now, but the longer she'd been a Senshi, the more she'd ignored her friend of almost ten years to hang out with the other Senshi. While she'd tried to tell herself that it was for safety resons, she finally had to admit to herself that it had been damn cold to poor Naru.

The depressing truth was, that her friendship with Naru Osaka was in danger of becoming a casualty of her being Sailor Moon. Usagi didn't want that to happen, so she'd promised herself she'd somehow make time for Naru and that was why they currently were sitting on a bench, enjoying milkshakes after cinema was over.

"Yes...too long. I somehow feel guilty for having been so distant to you," Usagi admitted.

"I wonder how it happened? I know you since kindergarden, and never would I've dreamed of us drifting apart like that. It's as if something tries to pull you away from me..." Naru sighed.

Truth to be told, Naru suspected that Usagi's other friends had something to do with it. It had started when Usagi had befriended Ami Mizuno but even with her new friends, she hadn't been too distant and for some time after that strange day where the sky had darkened, she actually had reverted to her old self and broken off the other friendships. Then when these new, strange monsters had appeared, she'd renewed her friendship with the others and since then they'd started drifting apart.

"It's almost as if you avoid me because I seem to attract monsters, although thankfully that didn't happen for months now..." Naru had to admit, the latter part was a relief to her.

"No way, I wouldn't abandon you just to save my own skin!" Usagi gasped.

Naru raised an eyebrow at this strong reaction. True, the attacks had been unpleasant and she'd been hospitalised more than once, but Usagi's reaction seemed to be over the top. On the other hand, there still was her suspicion of the real reasons why Usagi had changed ever since that day when Naru got attacked by a monster in her mother's jewelry shop.

She didn't know for sure, having almost voiced her suspicion to Usagi that day when that strange crystal had appeared, but maybe one day her friend would tell her...

"Come on, that went now far too serious." Throwing away her empty cup, she turned to Usagi with a smile. "We're here to have fun, so let's go. I heard that there's a shoe sale!"

Usagi smiled while she followed Naru, but inside she still felt ugly for keeping a secret from her friend and risking to alienate her. She even hated herself for keeping Naru, her oldest friend, in the dark. If she could just find the courage to tell her the truth that she was Sailor Moon.

After all, that boy Ryo Urawa, who had precognitive powers, was a civilian and yet comfortable with Ami's secret. Usagi had a suspicion that Ami still carried a torch for him and secretly was exchanging letters with him. No other explanation for her blush when catching her reading a letter from "R.".

So it could work... If she only could find the courage to actually tell Naru. She wanted to keep her friend, wanted to no longer deceive her. If there no longer were a need for secrecy, they could fnally again do all these things together which she'd stopped doing because of the need to keep the secret.

'Maybe once she knws, she can finally help me together with the others in our preperations for the high school exams. She always knew how to keep me interested in school stuff...' Usagi thought.

If she only could find the courage to tell her...

-CM-

"I don't know about this, Minako-san..." Konatsu said uneasily from the interior of a changing room.

"Come on, Konatsu-chan, Let us see!" the blonde Senshi said, happily. From next to her, Rei groaned.

"Minako, maybe we should give up on this. It's been two hours," the miko said. The three of them, her, Konatsu and Minako, had been in the Juuban shopping center trying to pick out an outfit for the ninja for a while now. The worst part was that Rei didn't even want to be here, but Minako had insisted.

"Nah, just this one last outfit. Come on out, Konatsu!" Minako replied, banging on the door.

"But how am I going to pay for it? I don't have any money," Konatsu objected, still not immerging.

"Rei's grandfather gave me some, now come… OUT!" Minako demanded, pulling on the door handle. Suddenly, the door jerked open. It hadn't been locked. The blonde lost her balance, falling backwards and trying to catch herself on Rei's arm. This brought the black haired girl down as well, and the two ended up in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Get… off of me." Rei growled, pushing Minako's face away from her own. She was well past annoyance at this point. The blonde, however, was unresponsive. "What's wrong?" she continued, before looking towards the place where she'd pushed Minako's head.

Konatsu was standing there, blushing a little and fidgeting. His ponytail had been let down to the bottom of his head and was tied more loosely. It was still a bit long for a guy, but didn't look quite as odd. He wore a grey, short sleeved shirt and black jeans. It didn't precisely look incredible, but it was now obvious that he was a boy rather than a girl, especially since his make-up had been washed off and the pepper bombs, one of which Minako had accidentally detonated, were removed from his shirt.

"You look cuuuute!" the blonde squealed, jumping up, somehow disentangling herself from Rei in the process, and rushing over to adjust some parts of the clothing.

"I still do not see the need for this, Minako-san," Konatsu said, uncertainly. "I feel silly."

"You look great, Konatsu-kun. Doesn't he, Rei?" Minako asked, looking at her friend, who was still sprawled on the ground.

"Yeah, he looks okay..." Rei said, noncommittally, as she got to her feet. "Now can we go?"

"Yeah, I think this is good," Minako said, leading Konatsu away from the room. "As for why we need to do this, well you said that Ukyo compared you to this Tsubasa guy, who was nothing like you aside from the fact that he dressed as a girl. The way I see it, if you dress in boy's clothes, she could get over that problem."

"I don't know about this, Minako-san..." Konatsu said, reaching down to tug at a fold of his Kimono, before remembering that he wasn't wearing it.

"Ah, trust me!" Minako said, smiling happily as she lead the boy to the cash register.

-CM-

Ranma was at an impasse.

Normally the pig-tailed martial artist did not let things bother him, however, this one tiny thing had been biting at the back of his mind ever since the Youma attack a few days ago. As he strolled down the street at a leisurely pace, he tried put his finger on the crux of his problem.

The void of chi in the rest of his body when he transformed into a Sailor Senshi was nagging at him for days now. At night when everyone was asleep, he transformed into his Senshi form just to try out what exactly the problem was that had cut off his chi reserves to his other body parts. He felt some other type of energy coursing through his body.

This energy felt more ethereal and elusive to try to take a grasp of, the only means of gathering the energy was by calling out "Deep Submerge". Then energy would become solid like concrete. He couldn't hold it for long and let it gather. It seemed to have a mind of its own. The energy propably was magic, something he'd learned to have a healthy dislike of after several nasty encounters.

This lack of control bothered him tremendously.

This was the main issue that is stopping him from accepting the offer that Pluto had given him. If he could't fight at his full potential, he didn't feel that it was fair for the people that he was protecting.

"HOTCHA!"

Out of nowhere, Happosai dumped a bucket of water on to him, triggering his curse, and latched on to her breasts. On instinct, he punched down on to the pervert.

"Oh I have missed you my lovelies!" Happosai half cried as he rubbed his face into her breasts, completely ignoring her punch.

"Stupid stinkin perverts harder to kill than roaches..." muttered Ranma half to himself. Happosai either did not hear her comment or too busy rubbing his face into her breasts to hear.

"Ain't ya suppose ta be recoverin or somethin?" Ranma raised her voice to ask the pervert that was currently latched on to her breasts.

"Can't you see? I am recovering!" Happosai stated and started squeezing her breasts.

"Oi!" Ranma yelped "I don't mind you squeezin my breast or nothin, but can ya be a bit gentle with em? It's that time of month and those are really sensitive"

"Sorry!" Happosai apologized, looking a bit sheepish "I haven't been squeezing them in a long time, got a bit enthusiastic. I have been meaning to ask, last time when I did that magic scan on my precious, I noticed a spark of Magic coming from you, and now..." Happosai stopped his ministration of her breasts and leaned back just a little bit to take a good look at her "...you are shining like a supernova. I know very well that is not how the curse looks like, and you weren't a magic user before."

"That's botherin me for days now, I was hopin that I woulda run inta you or the old ghoul ta ask about it, cuz while we were in the shop you said somethin bout how that is completely differen' than chi and stuff"

"Co-chan knows more about magic than me, I only know the basics."

-CM-

Ever since she found Happosai's battered body, Cologne had been reminiscing a much less complicated past. A past where the only thing that had mattered was her own happiness. To a past where she was the bride of Happosai. "Happi" was a nickname she had came up for him, it wasn't a coincidence that it sounded so similar to the English "happy."

During those short twelve years they had been married, she was truly happy. Now thinking back, it felt like eons ago. It took facing his ultimate mortality to jar up the feelings for him that she had tried to kill all those years ago. Now almost two and a half centuries later, and no longer an Amazon, the pride that broke them apart no longer mattered.

The door opening, rattled her away from the trip down memory lane. She looked up from bussing the tables and watched a female Ranma with Happosai firmly attached onto the red-head's chest entered the cafe. Cologne sighed and a smirk formed on her lips at Happi's antics.

Cologne pogoed toward Ranma, "Where is your girlfriend? Isn't she always with you now?"

Ranma shrugged. "Since Haruka's back on good terms with her pops, the sponsors that dumped her picked her up again, she went down to the tracks."

Satisfied with his answer, Cologne asked "So what can I do for you today, Ranma?"

Currently there were no custumers in the cafè and Mousse exited from the backroom at the sound of the front door opening, hoping for some customers. Granted, he'd had another great time flirting with that brown-haired girl named Makoto, but after all he needed an income. Instead he saw Happosai jumping down from Ranma's chest, to which he just tilted his head to the side and looked questioningly at Ranma.

"He's recoverin, and needed a boost, alright?" Ranma spoke up answering the silent question that was thrown his way by both Cologne and Mousse. He was dense, but not that dense.

Shaking her head she remembered why she came to the cafe in the first place. "Elder, what exactly is the difference between magic and chi?" Ranma posed the question in full student mode.

"What exactly brought this..." Cologne asked and stopped mid sentence as she started a simple magic scan on Ranma "Ah, I see you have quite an amount of dormant magic in yourself, but that wasn't present before."

The old women chuckled and shook her head in amusement. "Ranma, Ranma, you just get more and more interesting by the day. Okay let's hear the full story, because nobody can get magic overnight. Magic is not something that is trainable, one must have the spark of mana from birth, which requires both parents be magic users. In other words, your current state is almost impossible."

She turned to her employer. "Mousse do you mind, taking over waitressing and cooking for the moment? Magic is not something I want to divulge on the general populace," Cologne asked.

"I don't see why not. It's been slow business," Mousse responded, as he walked back into the kitchen. Cologne led Ranma and Happosai to the back room away from prying eyes.

-CM-

Once they were in the storage room, Cologne walked toward the back wall, pressed her hand to it and murmured something that is almost inaudible. A very simple wooden door appeared out of nowhere. Ranma and Happosai entered the door.

Ranma gaped with awe at the sight before them. What they saw was a very small foyer with four rooms attached to it without any doors so they could see clearly into them: two dojo-esque rooms, an advanced chemical lab with all modern equipment and a final room filled with jewels, scrolls, and other valuables.

Cologne answered the unspoken question from Ranma's shocked faces. "This is something I have developed a long time ago. I mixed the hidden weapon technique with a bit of time magic. This is the result," she explained, waving her hands gesturing to the rooms.

Cologne lead them into the second dojo room. That room was slightly smaller than the Tendo Dojo but the walls were lined with thick slabs of obsidian and the high ceiling was covered with luminescent fungi. It lit up the room a bit dimmer than a well lit room.

When they stopped, Cologne and Happosai turned expectantly to Ranma.

"To explain my problem, I need to start with this..." Ranma pulled out her henshin pen out of the stuff pocket. "Neptune Planet Power, Make-Up!"

When she finished her transformation, Happosai stood there with sparkles in his eyes and a silly smile. Like a little kid who just found out Christmas is coming early and he is getting everything he wants on his hundred page want list.

Cologne on instinct smacked Happosai across the head with her cane. Hurting his pride more than anything else, Happosai glared at Cologne as he rubbed the sore spot on his bald head and resumed his sparkled eye state. Cologne just sighed and chose to ignore him for now.

After doing a quick scan of Ranma, Cologne noticed what may be his problem. However, she chose to let the boy speak, since the subject was important to him.

"I can't seem ta access my chi while I'm in this form, and all of my chi is concentrated here," pointing to her stomach, "but I don't know what I'm using when I do this!"

"Deep Submerge!"

An orb of concentrated water shot out from her hand hitting the obsidian, splashing against it harmlessly. "I can't seem ta control how powerful that attack can be, it just forms itself in however powerful it decides, and I don't know what decides it!" Ranma vented his frustration.

Cologne tilted her head to the side. "Can you switch back? I want a confirmation of what I think may be your problem."

Ranma nodded and returned back to her civilian form, much to the chagrin of Happosai who pouted.

"To understand magic," Cologne began, "one must understand that magic is innate, those who do not do magic can rely on their chi, but those who have magic have both their chi and magic. Very few have been able to use both efficiently. The majority of your chi being locked up is due to your body now being filled with magic, and your chi veins run parallel to your magic veins. You have quite an unique problem, however, it is easily fixed. Now watch closely."

"Temporal Flux!"

Cologne jumped up and spanned her arms wide. Thousands of black orbs formed around her and rushed forward and hit the obsidian, again causing no damage to the stone itself.

Ranma watched as Cologne's chi veins flared up just before she said flux, and saw within each orb there was traces of Cologne's chi.

Landing from her attack, Cologne took some deep breaths. Happosai hurried to her as she staggered back up with her cane and continued from where she had stopped previously.

"I do not use that technique quite often, because it drains my chi quite rapidly. The difficulty for this technique is not how to access the chi, but how to condense your chi rapidly and be able to fit into the magic attacks. There is no way of deciding the dimension of your magic attacks, so in order to make it stronger, the chi attacks must be condensed and then willed into the magic attack."

Ranma looked at her curiously and asked, "Why are ya helping me all of a sudden?"

Stunned by the question, she answered "Since I am no longer an Amazon, I thought I need to leave a legacy of my own, not tied with the tribe. Well, that and I enjoy training you. It helps alleviate the boredom"

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: I now have a Beta Reader, Thank you Tribun. Reposting it, because of the edit to make the story flow better, Now on with the story!

Chapter 26, Family Ties

Leaving the Peking Duck, Ranma pondered what Cologne informed him what he needed to do to access his chi in Senshi form, when she transformed her chi line and magic lines got switched. She just needed to open up his chi lines again with meditation while being Neptune. The end result may be that he could ultimately forego the Senshi form and be able to access all the benefits that form brought.

A loud wolf whistle startled her from her thoughts. She turned around and saw Haruka on her bike going at the same pace she was pacing.

She stopped and flipped up the visor of her helmet. "Want a ride?" Haruka said with a wolfish grin on her face, licked her lips deliberately while looking her up and down, meaning something else entirely.

Ranma blushed and muttered "perv," as she flipped open the back compartment of the bike and took out the spare helmet. She strapped on the helmet on and straddled the backseat and wrapped her arms around Haruka's waist. As soon as Haruka felt the petite redhead's breasts pressed against her back, she hit the accelerator and took off, going slower than usual.

-CM-

Akira gritted his teeth as his traveling companion burst into another poetic stream of nonsense. This Kuno boy may have wanted to get rid of Saotome as well, but he was quite possibly the most annoying human being on the face of the earth.

Turning his mind away from his annoying companion, Mr. Kuonji looked down the street the two were currently on. His eyes caught on a flash of reddish brown, and he focused on the source of color. It was an older woman in a formal Kimono and the color he'd seen was her hair. As he looked at her, his eyes widened. He recognized her, that was the Saotome boy's mother.

Perhaps she would know where her son was, but he doubted that she would cooperate with him, especially considering Ukyo's recent attack on her son. "Boy, stay here for the moment," he muttered, preparing a throwing spatula and walking towards the woman.

Nodoka meanwhile walked down the shopping street, her left arm supporting several bags of groceries. Setsuna had had to start her job this week and Ranma and Haruka were at school, so she'd decided to make some use of her rather boring afternoon to pick up some food that they were low on.

Just before she was about to turn into another store, a man walked up next to her and grabbed her right hand. "Hmm, is there something wrong?" she asked, turning towards the man. He looked familiar, but that wasn't what caught her attention. He had what looked like a spatula in his other hand, and it's edge looked sharp.

"Hello, Nodoka-san," the man said casually. "Could you please lead me to the house where your son is living?"

She blinked. What in the world was going on here? As she hesitated, the man's hand that held the sharpened spatula twitched marginally. "I should warn you that I can land this in your throat in seconds with very little effort," the man remarked, twitching the blade again.

The auburn haired woman gulped, before nodding slowly. Her skills with a bokuto were a joke and she carried the wooden weapon mostly for show. Plus, if whoever this was wanted to see Ranma, she was sure that he would get what he deserved soon enough.

"I'd be happy to lead you to Ranma, but you didn't have to threaten me," she said, coolly, before starting to head towards Setsuna's house.

-CM-

Mr. Tenoh hummed to himself as he drove the small yellow sports car down the streets of the Minato ward. It was Haruka's car, which she hadn't been able to take with her when she'd left home on her bike, and he thought that he may as well deliver it while he came for his current visit.

As he pulled up to Setsuna's house, the man noticed Ranma's mother, Nodoka, standing next to a black haired man. She looked slightly uneasy. As he opened the door and stepped out, he began to see why. The man next to her had something small and metallic held against one of her arms, right around the wrist area. It was a strange place to hold a deadly weapon, but probably much less conspicuous than a knife to the neck would be.

"Where is he?" the man barked, seeming not to have noticed the large brown haired man's approach.

"I don't know," the woman admitted, honestly. "He said that he was going to see someone for a sparring match before I left." To her credit, Nodoka didn't seem to be ruffled, her speech as calm as a windless lake.

"Whoever you're looking for, I suggest you let this woman go," Mr. Tenoh said, casually. He was reaching into his pocket for a cellular phone with which to call the police as he said this. As the small electronic device cleared the pocket, something small and metal flew through the air and knocked it from his hand.

Mr. Tenoh looked to the ground in bemusement, seeing his phone pinned there by a gleaming … spatula.

"Kuno-san," the man, who had somehow managed to produce another of his micro-spatulas and return to his original position before Haruka's father could blink, commanded in annoyance. "Please get him out of here."

"Kuonji-san, this doth not appear to be the path to true vengeance on Saotome. First we assault an honorable seeming woman and then those who seek to free her?" came a voice, from a man in a blue and black Kendo outfit, who had been standing several feet away and seemingly attempting to ignore the proceedings to the best of his ability up until this point.

"Kuonji-san?" Nodoka and Mr. Tenoh said, simultaneously. It was then that the woman remembered where she'd seen this man before. He had, at one time, come to find her husband and son in order to make them pay off a debt. She'd heard from Ukyo afterwards of what he'd ordered her to do, but she hadn't thought he'd stooped this low.

Mr. Tenoh, on the other hand, only knew Kuonji Akira as one of the many people whose daughter had been engaged to Saotome Ranma.

"You want to take revenge on Saotome for your 'two loves,' don't you?" Akira said, seemingly ignoring the twin outbursts.

"Yes, I do, but surely there is some other way than to assault such people as these. Even the mother of the rogue himself is a woman, and I do not even know this man." The boy complained, but it seemed that the idea of taking vengeance on Ranma was appealing to him, as he took a position across from Mr. Tenoh, his bokken held up in a guarding stance.

Tenoh responded in kind, taking up a loose martial arts stance. He'd taken a few lessons when Haruka had begun to have an interest in fighting, and had continued after she had out-paced him since it was good exercise, but the boy before him looked like a trained practitioner of his art, and therefore he had no illusions of being capable of beating him.

It was at that moment that two voices rang out at once, both asking "What's going on here?"

-CM-

Haruka and Ranma, now male because someone decided to dump out their dirty warm laundry water and subsequently splashed her while Haruka rode by, looked on in a highly confused state. As they saw the scene in front of their home, two people were standing there. One holding a wooden sword on Haruka's father, and the other standing unusually close to Nodoka, one arm hidden behind her sleeve.

"What's going on here?" the two of them asked, though Ranma was looking at the swordsman in noticeable annoyance. "Kuno, why're ya threatening a non-combatant with a sword?" he continued, cracking his knuckles.

"Kuno?" Haruka asked, her eyes widening as she recalled the insane Kendoist from the stories Ranma had told of his previous life in Nerima. That, and he was one of the worst suitors her mother had picked, making her swear off men until she'd met Ranma. She started forward automatically, Ranma following and then overtaking her.

"Stop there, Saotome!" the man who was standing next to Nodoka demanded, as he shifted his grip on her to bring a blade to her throat. "If you don't, your mother will pay."

The pigtailed martial artist came to a screeching halt as the blade gleamed, as did Haruka. 'Mother?' Was her only thought as the male martial artist next to her narrowed his eyes and took a defensive stance. "Who the hell are ya and what do ya want?" he growled.

"My name is Akira Kuonji." The man intoned, angrily. "I demand that you repay my clan for the trouble and dishonor you've caused, by either marriage to my daughter or death. By this point I'd prefer the second."

"Kuonji, you're Ukyo's pop," Ranma replied, surprised. "I left the Saotome family and all those promises a while ago, now let her go. It ain't honorable to hold hostages, y'know." This last was said with a noticeable hint of annoyance in his voice.

"You dare lecture me on honor!" Akira snapped back, his hand trembling at Nodoka's neck, causing the previously unflinching woman to wince. "You, who ran away from his family and his duty? You, who single handedly ruined my child's life?"

Haruka and her father both looked at the man in astonishment. "The way I heard it, his father promised him to your daughter after previously telling you that Ranma was engaged to another girl," Haruka drawled. "Sounds more like you were being an idiot."

"It was a matter of honor!" The old man said, sounding somewhat as if he was trying to convince himself of this fact as he said it.

"Yes, yours and Mr. Saotome's, especially after Ranma-san left his clan," Mr. Tenoh responded, smoothly.

"If the boy thinks that running away from his problems is going to save him from punishment, he will be disappointed," Kuonji growled, self-righteously.

This was not the right thing to say to Ranma. During the past few months, Ranma had finally began to grow out of the shadow that was his former self. He learned during that time while working construction and living in a rundown building, the importance of self-reliance and independence. He learned the importance of self-respect and most importantly he finally understood what had been his problem while he was in Nerima: He did not know what he wanted in life.

Saotome Ranma died, as far as he was concerned, when he left Nerima. Saotome Ranma would have by now be fighting Akira, but at the same time trying to find a way to fix things. He had been too afraid to break ties, honour, family, or friend. Meiou Ranma found his purpose with his current family, Setsuna, Nodoka, and Haruka. For the first time since he could remember, Ranma found peace and joy.

Here was this man, who represented everything he hated about his past life, not only was this man trying to force him to do something he did not want to do, by ties he had already broken: honour. He was threatening one of his new family member by mentioning the old ties she had with him. Not only was he threatening the peace he found with his new family, but also wanted to drag him back to the old life that he had forsaken. In his old life, he would have jumped in feet first and started fighting against Ukyo's pop and damned the consequences, but now he felt a wave of calmness washed over him like a refreshing wave. This surreal calmness he felt, so natural yet foreign at the same time, he shook his head deciding to figure this out later. Concentrating on the issue at hand, he decided that a new tactic was required.

He looked to Haruka for support, he caught her eyes. Haruka nodded giving him the support he needed.

Adopting formal speech, Ranma spoke clearly, his voice resonating through the crisp evening air. "So you want to soil your own honour some more by holding hostages, rather than follow what honour dictates that we settle this without causing harm to a third party?"

A calm collected Ranma was not the Ranma Akira expected to face, he was expecting a quick tempered martial artist who did not understand how to communicate. He looked around unsure how to handle this situation. Ranma pressed ahead not knowing his advantage. "Since I am no longer a Saotome, and your contract is with a Saotome, I don't see what you would gain from attacking two former Saotomes."

"Two Former Saotomes?" squeaked out Akira Kuonji, Ranma he knew about but he did not know Nodoka was not a Saotome no more either, loosening his grip on Nodoka slightly.

Ranma nodded, "I left my clan, and Aunty Nodoka divorced Genma. What exactly do you aim to accomplish? If you want your honour back you should be killing Genma, not targeting us."

Setsuna walked out of the house after porting back from the Time Gate, knowing her presence here was needed. She looked curiously at the scene before her, Ranma and Haruka standing on one side, while Akira and Tatewaki standing on the other. Akira held a sharpened spatula against Nodoka's throat.

"Mei...Meiou-san," Akira stuttered with a little bit of fear in his eyes as soon as he saw Setsuna walked out, "What are you doing here?"

"I live here," Setsuna responded matter-of-factly, leveling a cold calculated stare that bore into Akira Kuonji's soul.

Ranma looking very confused eyeing from Akira and back to Setsuna. "You guys know each other?"

"Meiou Holdings owns his Okonomiyaki business. It was with Meiou Holdings' money, that he was able to even start his business," Setsuna paused and turned to Akira "So why, Kuonji-san, are you here?"

-CM-

Meanwhile, Tatewaki Kuno stood on the sidelines, conflicted and mostly confused. He had wanted to get vengeance against Saotome Ranma, that was the truth… but the one he had followed in an attempt to get it had turned out to be acting less than honorably. Still, he was a samurai of the house of Kuno, and had agreed to help the man.

Though he wanted to help the man, but he did not know how. This was where his confusion settled in, he had never faced a cool collected Ranma before, a-charge-in-full-throttle-ready-to-fight Ranma he knows how to handle, but not this cool collected nonchalant Ranma. The look that Ranma threw him at times pinned him to the ground, afraid to talk, afraid to act.

-CM-

Thinking that truth was better for his soul, as he looked at the woman who was responsible for his success, "I came to collect a family debt involving Ranma, since he had dishonoured the Kuonji clan, our business could not be expanded any further, and the restaurants that can be set up are small single to two owner restaurants," Akira was desperately trying to justify his reasoning for his hurt pride.

Setsuna leveled a glare at Akira Kuonji. "So in other words, by attacking my adopted son and his birth mother, you are willing to risk your only funding to maintain your current restaurant in order to expand?"

"A-a-a-d-d-dopted s-s-son?" Akira Kuonji stuttered out. This momentary verbal stun caused him to further lose his grip on Nodoka, who slipped away and ran toward the house.

Setsuna smirked, "You should really do your research before attacking, if you had caused any harm to him or Nodoka, I would be remised if I do not demand back the loan you have yet to pay back. So, Kuonji san do you want to continue this farce of a honour pledge and lose everything, or leave and we can salvage some type of deal out of it?"

Shaking his head to clear his head, The elder Kuonji gritted his teeth, his pride would NOT be denied. Rehashing all of the wrongs that Ranma had done to his family. Working his anger up, no longer caring who gets hurt at this point, he charged Ranma hoping to catch him off guard.

Projecting his intentions to chop Ranma's head off, to which Ranma responded by stepping in with his elbows thrust out hitting the older man in the chin at the last second. Akira was sent flying in the other direction, not in a graceful way of a person who is aware of his surroundings, but in a flying lump of an unconscious man. The trajectory of the flying man, was intercepted by a tree. His breathing was very even and not shallow, indicating he was unconscious and he would not be awake for quite a while.

-CM-

Seeing this as his chance, Kuno jumped in attacking Ranma, to which the pig tailed martial artist deftly dodged, looking not too happy about being attacked while his back was turned. Kuno however, being as persistent as ever, continued his attack.

As luck would have it, the sprinkler system went off just then triggering Ranma's curse, turning him into a her again.

"Oh pigtailed girl!" Kuno cried out, jumping toward the female Ranma, and hugging and groping her. Ranma who was stunned at this change of event wasn't able to react in time.

Haruka cannot stand watching Kuno any longer and jumped in from behind Kuno with a flying kick, knocking Kuno away from the female Ranma. Landing, she knelt down next to Ranma, who was shivering from Kuno's groping. Ranma looked at Haruka, whose top was by now soaked by the sprinkler, showing her breasts quite prominently.

A plan hatched in her head how to get rid of Kuno fast.

"Kuno," Ranma said while looking at him with hollow emotionless eyes, "because of you I no longer want to be touched by another man. I rather have the touch of a woman." Ranma, at first hesitant, then planted a kiss on Haruka's lips.

-CM-

On the sidelines, there were mixed reactions to the scenes in front of them.

Nodoka, who'd returned outside after calling the police, desperately wanted to separate the two, wanting to say something along the lines of being improper for two woman to be kissing, and in public no less. This was absolutely scandalous and unacceptable. She wanted to reform Haruka to be more feminine for Ranma, so he would have a more proper wife.

Setsuna looked on with a warm smile, Ranma was starting to show aspects of her old team mates, if somewhat subconsciously. The calm collected Sailor Neptune was starting to show herself more than the brash abrasive Ranma. She felt a sense of relief that some of her old traits were starting to show and it seemed that the warmth and loving Neptune that she knew was coming out, and hoped that the cold hearted mission driven Outters fate have been avoided.

Mr. Tenoh was happy for his daughter. Admittedly, to himself anyways, he had botched on the engagement agreement with Genma Saotome. However, from the scene in front of him, everything was looking up. He was not a prideful man and he definitely would not be driven to the point of what Kuonji san did. Honour did matter to him and his wife, however, if it meant losing his daughter then he would have gladly threw honour away. During the time period when Haruka ran away and then finding her, he came to the conclusion that to him the only thing that would matter was his daughter's happiness. His wife had agreed with him, however, of course, behind closed doors.

He looked over to Nodoka, seeing that desperateness and horror on her face. He decided right there and then to help Nodoka see what he and his wife saw when Haruka was gone, not for Ranma's sake but for Haruka's sake.

-CM-

At first Haruka was stunned by the kiss from the busty redhead. After a while however she responded, opening her mouth a little bit at the request of Ranma's insistent tongue flicking against her closed lips. Haruka felt Ranma's wet appendage slither into her mouth. It was somewhat of a sloppy kiss, but she preferred it that way. She responded in kind, licking, and suckling on her tongue. Haruka pushed her down on to the ground not caring the scene they were making, straddling her aggressor's hips and grinding against her. Their breasts rubbing against each other quite deliciously, causing the petite redhead to let out a whimpering moan.

Ranma intended at first for this kiss to be a short chaste kiss. But when she captured Haruka's lips, the taste and the soft texture of the biker's lips made her want more. She did not know when it happened but she was on her back in the front lawn, utterly enjoying being thoroughly kissed by Haruka and not caring about anything else. A dam broke when she kissed Haruka, all those years of denied affection stemming from when he was a child with Genma to the recent debacle with Akane. All those years of denied affection gushed out in this one kiss.

Ranma loved it, loved the feeling of Haruka's body incessantly rubbing against hers, loved the feeling of Haruka's dominating mouth all over hers, and loved everything that the kiss brought with it.

-CM-

Kuno looked on. Stunned. Unable to speak. His knees buckled under him.

His pig-tailed goddess said he caused her to scorn away the touch of a man. That he, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, was responsible for turning her into a lesbian. How? How could it be? He wanted to save her. From the clutches of that sorcerer Saotome. But...but he could not deny her words. He had heard clearly those cursed words. Slowly, he wobbled back to his feet, not knowing what to do, and unable to unsee what he saw right in front of him. His pig-tailed goddess kissing another girl.

Kuno, hollowed and broken, walked back toward Nerima.

-CM-

At the Crown Fruit Parlor, Kasumi Tendo smiled happily as she set a plate down at a table. Her day was going rather well. Although she'd had to stay home from the academy for the past few days on the order of its medical staff due to 'the pipe explosion' that had knocked her out, she had been keeping busy. Earlier that day, Aunty Nodoka had stopped by to check up on her, apparently being told about the attack by Ranma, and the two had had an enjoyable chat.

As she moved back to the kitchen to take a boiling pot off of the stove, she stopped dead, her face taking on a strange expression, her body trembling a little.

"Are you alright, Kasumi-chan?" Unazuki asked, walking up to the older girl and poking her on the shoulder.

"He's so happy...and...and...oh my!" Kasumi commented, acting like a kid who'd gotten a lollipop.

"What?" Unazuki responded, confused.

The older girl shook her head. "I… It's nothing, Unazuki-chan. Just a daydream." She said, cheerfully. After all she would never tell the other girl what exactly she'd just felt. It wouldn't be proper.

-CM-

Setsuna sighed as she walked back into the mansion, flicking her business heels into a corner. "Note to self, don't blow off work for two weeks unless you plan on quitting the job," she muttered. She'd needed to make Haruka and Ranma comfortable as part of her revised plan to revive the outer Senshi, but the backlog of students requesting course consultations or who'd been ordered to see the councilor due to bad behavior had annoyed her quite a bit.

The police had finally hauled Mr. Kuonji away. He wasn't that badly injured and would now enjoy a nice one-room apartment paid by the goverment with bars before the window. Silently, she resolved to make sure that Mr. Kuonji got put through a hard time in prison for attack with a weapon and threatening to slit Nodoka's throat. She was beginning to think of Nodoka as a friend, and she had a family to take care of now.

Also she now would demand repayment of the loans, essentially acquiring Kuonji's Oknoyomiyaki chain. He obviously no longer was trustworthy. Maybe his daughter would be a better owner once coming of age.

She had originally been hoping that she could clear away Ranma's recruitment into the Senshi team in a week, in order to make way for the slightly harder task of convincing Haruka. Without the memories of Uranus telling her that the Senshi uniform was a respected and powerful symbol, the girl would probably, ironically, make more of a fuss about it than Ranma was.

Feeling a headache approaching, she walked upstairs to get some sleep, having no ear for the argument that was erupting inside Ranma's and Haruka's room.

-CM-

"No," Haruka said, sounding as if she'd said this several times before.

"Haruka, I understand that you care for Ranma, I like the boy as well, but I wasn't aware that you'd have to put up with this kind of situation before," Mr. Tenoh said, rubbing his forehead. "I'm worried about you."

"Look, dad," Haruka started, for the third time so far. "I wasn't in that much danger. After all we managed to solve the situation with Kuno without me being in any danger at all. If he would've attacked even after our little show he would have knocked me aside and gone for Ranma. I probably wouldn't get as many bruises as I do when I crash in a race." She winced as she saw her father's face darken. She'd forgotten what his reaction every time he found out she'd crashed was.

Deciding that she had to cover this hole, she continued, rapidly. "Look. I just started school here, at the place where you wanted me to go anyways. I couldn't go home even if I wanted to, at least not without losing what I've got done so far."

"I don't want you to drop out of school, I just…" Mr. Tenoh said, trailing off.

"You want me to stay away from Ranma," Haruka responded, sharply.

"That's not what I said," her father shot back, quickly.

"Well, that's about the only way I could keep safe from this kind of thing. When Ranma told me all about his life and fights before, I sort of expected things like this to happen." She thought it would be a good idea not to mention that she'd already been attacked once before now. Best not to give her father more ammo. "So, some thing's happened, and you want me to run away."

"As if that would solve any problems," Ranma commented from the side. "While I don't wanna see ya get hurt, I can hardly tell you what to do."

Haruka sighed. "See, even Ranma himself agrees with me." She then looked to Ranma, as if forgetting the argument. "Before I forget, this was really nice. Do you always taste this good?"

Mr. Tenoh felt mildly uncomfortable. It seemed his daughter and Ranma had forgotten he was there, and he was about to turn and go, but he had to know something. Not listening to his conscience, he stayed exactly where he was.

"You mean if I taste better as a boy or a girl? Why, let's find out..."

Mr. Tenoh decided now would be a good time to leave the two to themselves when seeing the two of them starting to kiss yet again, only this time with Ranma being male. Some privacy would now be better.

-CM-

Half an hour later, the house was quiet for the time being.

Nodoka remained downstairs, drinking slowly from a cup of tea. Mr. Tenoh had left earlier, after again reassuring her that Ranma and Haruka were also happy when Ranma was male and yes, he had seen that first hand. It had helped to ease her fears. Despite knowing better, she still had this little irrational fear at the back of her head that Ranma could turn into a lesbian and forsaking his male side.

She was jolted from her attempt to relax when she heard someone coming down the stairs. "Haruka-chan, is that you?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's me," came the answer.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Nodoka offered, watching the blonde enter the living room.

Haruka nodded. "I wanted to talk to you, anyways." She said, sliding in on the opposite side of the low table where Nodoka was sitting.

"What about?" The older woman asked, though she had a good idea what Haruka would want to know.

"How about why you said you were Ranma's aunt when that Kuonji guy and Setsuna said you are his mother," she said bluntly. The recent trouble hadn't exactly been fun for her, and she therefore wasn't particularly concerned with tact.

"That's… a little hard to explain, Haruka-chan," Nodoka started, taking another sip of her tea to buy herself time to think.

"I've heard that a lot when hanging around with Ranma," the blonde replied, looking at the older woman squarely. "I know he cares about you, and I'm pretty sure you care about him, too. So what happened and why not just call you Nodoka rather than Aunt Nodoka if he wanted to deny you as his mother?"

Nodoka sighed and started talking. "When I first went to find Ranma at the Tendo house after the training trip, I didn't know about the curse and he didn't want me to find out, so Ranma hid in his cursed form and called himself Ranko. When he was being Ranko, I sort of adopted the girl like a child. She was so lonely, and her parents weren't around." She chuckled a bit. "Not to mention that she was such a tomboy. I thought I could teach her how to be more of a lady, and she was always so willing to do anything for her 'Aunty Saotome."

The slight smile that had come to her face at the memory of her attempts at training Ranko faded. "That should have made me think, but at the time I just thought that she was so starved for affection that she was latching onto me as a mother figure."

Haruka wanted to ask precisely why Ranma would hide from his mother, but she held back, waiting for Nodoka to continue.

"I guess…" the older woman started, after another sip of her tea, "when I finally found out about Ranma's curse, I took Ranma and Ranko as different people. Ranma showed one of his moments of extreme martial arts capability to save me from falling over a cliff, and I guess the idea that such a strong person could be the lonely and vulnerable girl I'd started mothering at the Tendo home was hard for me to believe." She looked down in shame.

"I thought all of the things he went through, the fiancés, everything, weren't nearly as bad as they really were, and when he finally snapped and left Nerima I… didn't act at all like a mother should." She looked down to take another sip from her tea, and Haruka noticed that the older woman was holding back tears.

"Look, I'm sorry I asked. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories," she said, a little lamely.

"It's alright, Haruka-chan," Nodoka said, softly. "I think I needed to talk to someone about this. I thank you." Standing, she gathered the tea supplies, all but Haruka's own cup, and headed into the kitchen. The blonde just looked mildly confused, before standing herself, taking her cup into the kitchen.

It had been a long day.

-CM-

Later that night when everyone was asleep, Ranma was in Senshi form on top of Setsuna's house in deep meditation, trying to expand his chi lines like Cologne had told her. She had some success, but she figured it would be another week or so before she could access as much chi in her reserves as his civilian form. She felt a familiar yet foreign presence behind her, but she felt no hostility, so she continued her meditation.

Sailor Pluto watched as Neptune meditated in a lotus position. Throughout the years she had been alive, she knew what it may do to a person if they are jarred out of meditation. So she waited patiently for Neptune to break her trance.

Neptune took this chance to do a quick scan of Sailor Pluto. With the reason of why Pluto felt so similar figured out very soon, Ranma's eyes shot open and she found herself looking the older woman straight in the disconcertingly red eyes. "So, when are you gonna tell me who ya are, Setsuna?"

Setsuna was taken aback, by her sudden question. "When did you figure it out, Ranma?" she asked, as she sat down next to the Sea Senshi.

"I figured it out just now, I was tryin to reaccess my chi again like the old ghoul said."

"Old ghoul? oh right Cologne!" Setsuna said

Ranma did not know why she felt at peace with Setsuna, like with an old friend who knew her quite well and no need for any pretense of pride or anything else. She glanced up at the night sky relaxed.

"You know," Ranma mused, "I always felt comfortable under the night sky, like I have been staring at these skies for ages," she said, slipping into a much more sophisticated speech subconsciously channeling the much more elegant and sophisticated Sailor Neptune of her previous life.

"One of the main issues, why I was hesitant becoming Sailor Neptune, was that I felt I am doing everyone a disservice when I could not fight at my full potential" she continued while stretching out her legs and laid down on her back.

Gathering her legs together and hugging her knees to her chest, Setsuna asked "How does Cologne play into all of this?"

"She's the one who taught me about magic and how to access chi and be able to combine both magic and chi attacks together," Ranma answered.

"Why are you getting involved in this, Setsuna?" she asked, propping her head up with her arm so she could look at the green haired woman.

"You are a Senshi," Pluto said, truthfully. Like a lot of what she said, it wasn't complete truth, but it was truth.

"I haven't agreed to join your group," Ranma shot back, annoyed.

"It doesn't matter," Pluto said, rubbing one temple. "When you were born, you became Neptune. Whether you choose to wield the power and fight as a Senshi isn't the point, though I would like you to take your role again, as we need all of the Senshi for future battles. Regardless of whether you join or not, though, your past self was… a friend of mine, and I owe it to her to try and help you."

"So the calmness and everything I have felt, have something to do with this past self?" Ranma asked

"Haven't you noticed your speech patterns are different to when you were under pressure. The way you handled Kuno and Kuonji were a lot different than before, too? You did not go all out with that punch against Kuonji"

"How would you know how I fought before?" Ranma asked curiously

"Nabiki," Pluto answered simply, pulling out the file she had bought from Nabiki

"Oh," Ranma said, "Would this affect who I am?" Ranma asked pointing toward the skirt and the tiara.

"Not anymore than your curse had been, it gives you more tools to choose from, but it does not force you to use them if you do not want to."

They sat under the stars chatting away catching up like old friends do and enjoying each other's company.

END.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Madness

Tatewaki Kuno was walking home in a daze, the new set of events running through his head constantly. He didn't even notice that he was walking in a circle and that by now it was deepest night.

His pig-tailed girl had spoken. She no longer wanted to be with a man, and it was his fault. His of all people's fault, The Blue Thunder, the blessed among men, the one that gods smiled upon. No, this had to be that sorcerer's work somehow. The sorcerer had driven her away from him, it MUST be so! That was the only plausible explanation in his mind. Although he did not know how exactly, one thing was definite. Whatever it was, it could not be his fault.

There was something different about his pig-tailed girl; it was mostly in her eyes. These expressive eyes no longer held a fierce robust flame, but when he looked into her eyes he felt the calm of the sea before an impending storm. He did not know what it meant, but facing that calmness shook him to the very core and purged his mind for the first time since that night so many years ago.

An uneasiness ran through his body like touching dry ice, the coldness causing sharp chilled pain throughout his body like he was just cut everywhere. Shivering uncontrollably he rubbed his arms trying to produce some heat through friction. His legs gave out from under him, slumping to the ground.

The weather was not at fault, since the leaves had yet even changed their colours indicating summer is ending and autumn started touching the leaves draining away their vibrant colours. Kuno looked up at the afternoon sky, not knowing what to feel. His mind was at war with itself. He kneeled on the sidewalk, his head tilted back. The empty and crazed eyes faded into a pair of softer glazed innocent eyes, looking around his surrounding slightly confused.

"Mo..Mommy? Mommy?" Kuno said in a quiet and soft voice completely unlike his usual assertive self. He stumbled back to his feet clumsily and walked a little bit closer towards something. He wrapped his arms around something but it seemed that it was too big for him to wrap his arms around.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy?" He repeated while doing the pulling motion.

To what seemed to be no avail, he then stumbled a little bit down the street with a mix of fear and trepidation in his eyes and took a left. He acted as if sliding open a screen door. He stepped forward a few steps, kneeled down and started pushing something.

"Kochi, Kochi, wake up!" he paused then his eye suddenly sparkled. "Kochi, something's wrong with mommy!"

He then held something almost like he was dragging someone with him as he went back to where he was standing beforehand. He pointed up slowly with a look of trepidation and awe.

"Kochi, why is Mommy floating?"

After this episode, Kuno slumped down on to the ground, passed out.

-CM-

The sun's golden mane illuminating the sky from the east and extended to the western part of the sky. A brisk but not cold air blew across the Minato ward, as Kuno began to stir from his forced slumber in a dity side alley.

He slowly climbed back to his feet and heard the shouts of "Burning Mendala" and "Sparkling Wide Pressure". Hoping beyond hope that something would distract him from the confusion he felt, he slowly waddled toward the source of the fighting. He immediately spotted a blonde girl with meatballs on her head.

-CM-

Sailor Moon was not happy, an early morning fight with a leftover Youma was not something she wanted to wake up to. Today may be a school day, but waking up at the crack of dawn from Luna scratching her face was not something she wanted.

Just when she was about to fire off her finishing move on the Youma, someone shot out from behind her and tackled her to the ground yelling, "Oh meatball princess, you defeated me! now you can date me!" She froze up, breaking her concentration, when she felt two hands squeezing her breasts. On instinct, she elbowed the offending man in the stomach. However, instead of loosening his grip, he tightened it.

The Youma saw this as its chance and made a dash for its already partially drained victim to get a new boost. Moon still struggling to free herself from the offending man's grabby hands could not do anything to prevent it.

"Mercury, stop it!" commanded Moon, as she was still trying to free herself.

The aqua Senshi tried to stop the Youma with her attacks while Mars and Jupiter tried to pry Kuno off of Moon. Not wanting to hurt a civilian, Jupiter and Mars could only try to pull him off, but he did not seem to want to budge at all.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Kuno had been talking, but since the Senshi were too busy to get him off of Moon, they did not hear a word he said.

"Venus Love Me Chain!" a golden chain lashed out of nowhere and wrapped itself around Kuno. With that Sailor Venus pulled Kuno off of Moon and kept him wrapped up and immobile as he was.

"Are you alright?" Venus turned to Moon who was still shivering from the molestation by Kuno completely dazed and unable to speak.

"Demon women, why have you impeded my righteous courting to the meatball princess?" Kuno yelled indignantly at Sailor Venus, completely construing the situation to what his mind can handle. He finally was silenced by Mars smashing a trshcan lid over his head.

Right then they heard a sickening crunsh and something hitting the ground, followed by Mercury screaming. This was followed by a sound as if something was frozen solid and then smashed apart.

Turning around they saw Mercury holding the limp body of the draining victim, her head at an unnatural

angle. The Youma seemed to have been frozen solid and then shattered to pieces, which now rested on the ground.

Jupiter paled when seeing this. "Is she...?"

Mercury looked up, pale as well. Right now she didn't care how exactly she'd frozen the youma solid, as it had been to late. "When it grabbed her... it broke her neck. She's dead..."

Everyone watched in silence Mercury gently putting the dead girl back to the ground. This was the first time they actually had failed to save a victim of a monster attack. The Inner Senshi, with guilt laying heavily on their hearts, headed in silence toward the Hikawa Shrine, leaving Kuno where he was tied up.

After returning to her civilian form, Minako Aino dropped an anonymous tip to the police about the crazed kendoist. She didn't care if he would be suspected of killing the poor girl, as in a way it actually was his fault.

-CM-

Ukyo Kuonji looked at the man she was sitting across from through a thick bulletproof glass.

The man was sitting in a wheelchair with a neck support, cask arm in a sling and a wired shut mouth most probable from a fractured jawbone. She was not particularly thrilled having been called to the police station to talk her father, but there was that pesky familial obligation. Looking at the beaten form of her father she could not suppress the insufferable smirk on her face. He was given a pen and pad so they can at least communicate given his current condition.

"So, I suppose this means that you acknowledge that I did my best in the pursuit of Ranma and my obligation of honor is discharged," Ukyo blurted out, cheerfully. Honestly, this was very satisfying. The form in front of her wrote down the single word yes on the paper. Flipping her brown hair over her shoulder, the Okonomiyaki chef walked out of the visitation room to the disgruntled grunts of her father as background music.

As soon as the man was coherent enough, she was going to bring a few papers that she'd requested over and have him sign them. Then, at least, government officials would stop expecting a 'Mr. Kuonji' every time they called her, like had happened when the police had called to notify her of her father's incarceration this morning.

Life wasn't precisely good, but it was a hell of a lot better than it had been a week ago, with one exception. Shaking her head, she tried to get the thought of a certain effeminate waiter out of her mind.

"Excuse me Ukyo-sam… I mean Ukyo-san?" Came a voice, causing the chef to turn and face it's owner. Standing in front of her was a strangely familiar young man, fiddling nervously with a ponytail at the base of his head.

"Yeah?" She asked, curiously.

"I was wondering, that is, I mean…" the man stammered, before clearing his throat. "Would you like to go and get some lunch?" The man said, looking down shyly.

Ukyo pondered for a moment. The person who was standing in front of her scuffing his feet did seem to be familiar, and it was honestly kind of flattering to get asked out. She shrugged. "Alright, sure." She said, finally. After all, she had to move on from Ranma eventually.

Inside, Konatsu was jumping for joy. His Ukyo-sama had agreed to go on a date with him. Maybe Minako-san's advice was working? Well, admittedly, he hadn't followed much of Minako-san's advice so far aside from the clothes. Somehow, he thought that kneeling and kissing Ukyo's hand before asking her out would probably get him a spatula upside the head. Still, things were looking up for him.

'Yeah,' both Ukyo and Konatsu thought, 'Today's going to be a good day.'

-CM-

Konatsu fiddled nervously with his ponytail as he walked silently next to Ukyo. The two hadn't exchanged words since he had met her and asked her out, and the silence was becoming, at least to him, uncomfortable. He quickly glanced backwards, then returned his gaze to the sidewalk in front of him and hoped that Ukyo wouldn't notice.

"Look…" Ukyo said, her voice breaking the silence like a shotgun shot to the overly-tense male Kunoichi. "Is there something wrong, Sugar? You seem more nervous than Ran-chan around cats."

"Nothing's wrong, Ukyo-san," Konatsu said, quickly.

The Okonomiyaki chef looked at the boy walking next to her skeptically. She'd thought that she'd recognized him from somewhere, maybe Furinkan, but the way he was acting, perhaps accepting a lunch invitation wasn't the smartest move. "So where are we going for lunch?" She asked, deciding to give the boy a chance.

"I… I was thinking we go to…" Konatsu fumbled. He couldn't believe that he hadn't considered WHERE to take Ukyo-sama if he succeeded in asking her out! His eyes flicked around the street randomly, stopping briefly on a garbage can nearby before locking onto a sign that said 'Crown game center and fruit parlor.' "How about there?" He asked, pointing and trying to act like he wasn't just pointing at the first place he saw.

Ukyo shrugged. "Sure, I guess." She said, following her rather jittery date into the building.

From a nearby Garbage can, Minako Aino cursed. She'd been following Konatsu to see how he was doing, but she hadn't planned for what to do if he entered a building. To make things worse, so far he hadn't done any of the things she'd advised him to do on a first date.

Once the two she was following entered the building, the Senshi of Love hopped up from her cover and followed them in. After the horrible events of the morning, she could use every distraction from their failure to protect the latest victim from harm. Failing was new to her and in a way she was right now trying to make up for it by helping Konatsu.

Just as she was about to climb the stairs to the second floor and find a corner booth to hide, someone called out to her. "Hi, Minako-chan!" came Motoki's voice from the arcade's front desk. "Come back to try and get to level 34 in the Sailor V game?"

Minako just sighed in temporary defeat and turned from her mission to talk to her friend.

Meanwhile, Ukyo and Konatsu had found a seat in the upstairs parlor of the crown, and Ukyo was looking over the menu that was left on the table.

Konatsu tried to do the same thing and he was more relaxed since Minako was apparently lost in the crowd, but he kept getting distracted either by taking a glance at Ukyo or tugging nervously at the sleeves of his rather uncomfortable dress shirt. The silence between the two was broken as the waitress approached the table.

"Oh, hello Ukyo-san," Kasumi greeted her cheerfully.

"Kasumi?" Ukyo asked, raising her eyes from her menu to stare slack jawed at the eldest Tendo sister. "When did you get here?"

"I didn't have school today, so I thought I'd work a shift," Kasumi replied, completely missing Ukyo's real question. "Now what would you like to eat, Ukyo-san?"

"I'll have some battered chicken." Ukyo said, derailed by Kasumi's matter of fact delivery and losing her train of thought.

Kasumi nodded slightly, before turning to Konatsu. "And you, Konatsu-kun?" She asked, with a kind smile. Konatsu selected his order, neither he nor Kasumi noticing that Ukyo had a look of shocked surprise frozen on her face.

"K… Konatsu?" The Okonomiyaki chef stammered, pointing at the not currently cross-dressing ninja.

"Hai, Ukyo-san," Konatsu said, looking at her quizzically. "I don't really look that much different, do I? I thought you knew it was me." He looked down, his body-language starting to clash a little with his current appearance as he took a very feminine posture. "I apologize."

"Konatsu… it's all right. You just look," she shrugged, not sure what to say.

"You don't like it, Ukyo-san?" He asked, as he fidgeted with his sleeves and looking down completely unsure of what to do.

"No, no. You look fine, Konatsu. I just didn't expect you to dress like a boy, that's all." Ukyo almost wanted to smack herself. "That is, I know you are a boy, but I'm so used to you in your Kunoichi gear." She babbled. Distantly, she wondered why she was trying so hard not to insult Konatsu.

"Well, I heard you say that you felt that I was just like that annoying Tsubasa boy who always bothers you," Konatsu explained, not seeing Ukyo's wince. "Since the only things the two of us had in common was our dressing as women, I attempted to overcome that obstacle." He grimaced. "Although it does feel a bit strange."

Ukyo looked at him incredulously. "You mean you disappeared for almost two weeks, just because you were trying to find men's clothes, because of one comment that I made?" She frowned. That you weren't even supposed to hear," she added, with a small glare.

"Yes, Ukyo-san. On the night I left the Ucchan, I found a Shinto priest who took me in. His granddaughter and her friends helped me with my clothing, as well as a few pieces of advice on how to take a girl on a date," Konatsu said. It was only after he said it that he thought of the advisability of telling Ukyo that he'd gotten advice about dating her, but she didn't seem to react to it.

The reason Ukyo hadn't reacted to the second half of Konatsu's statement was that she was currently lost in thought. At some point during their conversation, Kasumi had left and returned with her food, and Ukyo spent the next few minutes chewing and thinking.

What Konatsu had done seemed both incredibly stupid and, in an odd way, very familiar. Briefly, she recalled a time when she'd attended Furinkan in as feminine an outfit and appearance as she possibly could, strangely enough, it had also been due to an offhand comment Ranma had made while not thinking, though at the time, and until recently, she'd thought it was akin to a proposal.

The brown haired girl stopped chewing for a few seconds and swallowed hard as another realization hit her. Her relationship with Konatsu was rather similar to what Ranma's had once been with her. The male Kunoichi would do almost anything for her, and adored her. She'd dismissed it as hero worship, but this most recent incident showed that he was, in fact, interested in her and just like Ranma had with her, she'd ignored it or tried to dismiss it.

"Ukyo-san, are you all right?" Konatsu asked, and Ukyo noticed for the first time that he was clenching his jaw right after the word 'san,' as if he wanted to address her with his usual 'Sama.'

"I'm fine, Konatsu." Ukyo said, quietly, before lifting another piece of food to her mouth. After a few minutes, she spoke again. "So was that one of the people who helped you out that was following us?"

Konatsu smiled slightly. "So, you noticed Minako-san?"

"Blonde hair's kinda easy to spot," Ukyo replied. "Was it Minako's temple you stayed at?"

"No, it was Hino-san's. His granddaughter is named Rei. She has black hair. I didn't see her following us."

"So, you've been hanging around with two pretty younger girls, Maybe I should be jealous, Konatsu," Ukyo said, mentally wincing.

That sentence would probably give the boy false hope, but then again, was it so false? Unlike Ranma, she didn't have half a dozen other commitments tugging her in different directions. While Konatsu blushed and stammered, she made a decision. She didn't have her dream of living with Ranma to fall back on now, and it was time to rebuild her life. If it happened to be with Konatsu, so be it.

From the doorway to the Crown's kitchen, Kasumi wore a small smile as she saw Ukyo marginally relax and start to talk quietly with Konatsu.

END.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28, First Meetings

"This is an OUTRAGE!" Kuno bellowed, glaring hotly at his black clad ninja manservant, who was sitting nervously in a chair on the other side of a pane of glass.

"I'm sorry master," Sasuke's quavering voice said, as he rubbed his ears from the volume of Kuno's shout. "The family lawyers say that they're facing something far more serious than anything before. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do."

Kuno huffed. He had been resigned to a few weeks in a local jail while his family's legal council arranged to free him, but what he was hearing Sasuke say now was NOT what he'd expected. Apparently, finding him beside the dead body of a girl had moved the investigations up to a much more serious level.

Unlike before, this was treated like a murder case and his rantings after waking up had convinced the people in charge that he'd either done it in a fit of insanity or was somehow involved in the whole thing. The family lawyers had made it clear to Sasuke that unlike before, no kind of influence could help Kuno to weasel out of this one.

"Sasuke, I am not mentally unbalanced, and I will not suffer this indignity!" he boomed, causing the Ninja to flinch again.

"But master Kuno, the other alternative is most likely a rather long prison sentence!" the faithful ninja servant told his master, hoping that his point would get through.

The young Kuno frowned. While the idea of being sent to a psychatric hospital was repugnant, the idea of wasting years in prison was much worse. Besides, he was clearly perfectly sane, and therefore the mental hospital would be forced to release him within a week. He sighed. "Fine, Sasuke. I find this most objectionable, but see no choice. Inform the family lawyers that I shall agree to enter the mental hospital… then fire the foul knaves," he growled, turning about and striding to the door that lead back to his cell proudly.

Sasuke walked out of the detention center and headed home.

-CM-

As Sasuke slowly wondered home, He began to ponder about the predicament that he was in.

Young Master Kuno had just got confined to a mental institution, but he knew with his power and influence from his mother's fame the doctors would not keep him long. Well, perhaps not considering the seriousness of the situation... but still, the possibility was there. Kami knew this had happened in the past to his father, his sister, and Tatewaki himself. However, every time they were released within the month at most. Due to the fame and the philanthropist works of his mother, the mental institutions had not kept any of the Kunos long.

The Kuno Household had been much more lively when Yuko-sama was still alive. The household had changed drastically without her calming presence in the loony bin. Yuko Kuno had been the heart and soul of the Kuno estate. After her death, all the servants had trickled out one by one until only he, the most loyal of all, was left. He had contemplated leaving for a while before knowing his own honour was at stake here, being the thirteenth generation of ninjas to be serving the House of Kuno.

Yuko Kuno had been the glue of the Kuno family household and their sanity. Sasuke had serious doubt about the parentage of both Tatewaki and Kodachi. Yuko-sama had been one with tremendous poise and class, a far cry from the false front of poise and class that both Tatewaki and Kodachi put up.

He sighed as he absent-mindedly toiled his shinai around, deciding to not think of the children for now.

Kocho Kuno had married into the Kuno family. His original family was not as prestigious as the Kunos. However, he'd made a name for himself from his own business. Yuko-sama's choosing of Kocho had been something completely unexpected.

Now there was little left of the original Kocho Kuno. The man that married Yuko-sama and the man that was currently the principal of Furinkan High were by now two completely different persons.

Before he had been much more calmer and a shrewd businessman. The Elder Kuno had graduated from a very prestigious school over in the States through his own hard work. It was one of the things Yuko-sama had loved most about him, his perseverance. Now, in his madness, his perseverance became something much more twisted. Before His wife death, his perseverance was considered a virtue, but now it was just a twisted monster of indescribable hideousness.

The circumstance to his mistress's suicide had always been unclear. There had been no clues as to why exactly she had killed herself. There were rumours within the servants about finding her husband having been unfaithful with her own sister and that he wanted to leave Yuko for her sister. He however had not put any credibility to this rumour, because he knew the elder Kuno had loved Yuko and did not marry just for her name, fortune or fame.

The craziness of all of the current Kunos had all set in after her death. Tatewaki took her passing the worst. He had almost immediately immured himself within the confines of his own room. He was the one who had first found the dangling body of Yuko-sama above her bed. When the servants had finally arrived, he was holding Kodachi and both were looking up at the asphyxiated corpse of their mother not knowing what it was with a twisted form of awe on their faces.

-CM-

Later that day, Ranma sat in Juku, staring cross-eyed at a math question. He'd previously been nibbling on the end of his pencil and had managed to wear the eraser away to the wood and crush the metal end cap in frustration.

Ami sighed as she looked over at her Juku partner. At this point she wasn't worried about him being an agent of darkness. No, she just wanted to get this class over with. "Ranma, you do it like this, see?" she asked, for the fourth time on this one question, tracing her own pencil across a neatly printed row of calculations in her notebook.

"But how did you solve for C?" Ranma asked, plaintively.

Ami felt that even her patience was wearing thin. Normally this wouldn't happen. However, after the horrible events of the morning she still hadn't found back to her inner balance and she had to watch out not to shout at Ranma in frustration.

"You take the square of D and…" Ami was interrupted in her explanation as a loud roaring noise reverberated across the Juku class. All of the students' heads shot up, and the teacher woke with a snort.

"What was that?" Ranma asked, looking towards the source of the roar. It was behind a wall, deeper into the library.

"Do you think that was a Youma?" One student piped up, nervously.

Ranma stood and to his surprise, so did Ami. The martial artist and the younger girl both crept to the door to the hall, quickly looking out. "Yep, that's a demon all right." Ranma muttered, taking note of the large green and black striped creature that was standing in the hallway. It had a student clutched in its large, wickedly clawed hand and Ranma's Chi sense showed that it was sucking life energy out of the boy. "Get everyone outta here." The pigtailed martial artist said, glancing over at Ami.

"What will you be doing?" The blue haired girl asked, confused. Her question was answered as Ranma charged through the door, picking up a heavy shelf and lobbing it at the creature. Ami blinked a few times, before proceeding to usher everyone else through a different door and out of the class room. It didn't take a lot of time, since the residents of Juuban almost had a 'Youma drill' by this point, but it was still almost three minutes before the Senshi of water was alone to transform.

She did so as fast as possible. After the recent events the last thing she wanted was another innocent being killed.

In the meantime, Ranma had been distracting the Youma as best as he could. His first thrown projectile had managed to knock the Youma's arm hard enough to make it drop the person it was holding, but there were only a few things around here to throw and on his first offensive attack he'd found out that this was one of the creatures that could drain energy from his limbs as he attacked.

He was tempted to use the transformation pen to turn into Sailor Neptune and destroy this thing that way, but he'd managed to get the only civilian in the immediate area out of range and he had to make sure that he had enough time to concentrate and transform.

He swung a wooden chair into the creature's side as hard as he could, causing the chair to snap, but unfortunately the Youma was unharmed. He cursed. That had been the last object around the area that could be used as a weapon, and he was currently relegated to dodging and thinking. All of his attacks would probably just feed this thing, and hitting it hard with un-charged objects hadn't worked. Genma's forbidden techniques could possibly work, but he'd made a promise to keep them forbidden. He couldn't think of any tactics that would work, at least not without a lot of preparation and luck, and unfortunately he'd just run out of time.

The martial artist had been too caught up in the fight to notice, but the Youma had been slowly draining his life energy during the fight. He had a LOT of life energy to drain, but it'd been slowing him down for about half a minute now, and the Youma used this opportunity to lash out and grab Ranma by the arm.

The pigtailed boy tried to use the arm hold as leverage to swing around and kick the Youma in the abdomen, but the kick wasn't nearly as strong as it should have been. As Ranma struggled to get out of the Youma's grip and it continued to suck away his energy at an accelerated pace, a voice came from the end of the hall. "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

Ranma's eyes widened as a huge column of water came at the Youma. All of its force was aimed away from him, but that didn't stop him from getting soaked.

As the redhead sputtered and rolled away from the now quite pained Youma, she saw a blue skirted sailor standing at the door at the end of the hall, her arm stretched out from the attack she'd recently launched.

She hadn't planned on revealing herself to these other Senshi so soon, but that couldn't be helped now. 'Setsuna will love this when I tell her...'

Ranma wasted very little time, quickly withdrawing her transformation pen from her pocket. She dove into the classroom she'd originally come out of, looked around to make sure no one was around and then held the pen in the air. "Neptune planet power, Make up!" She called, before the flow of water overtook her, leaving her in her sailor uniform.

-CM-

Sailor Mercury gulped as she saw the Youma's newest draining victim drop to the ground and roll away. She'd gotten the thing's attention, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. She'd gotten a scan of this Youma with her computer before attacking it and it was quite strong.

Even though she now had a projectile attack, she was still more of a support member for the Senshi and would have to keep the Youma occupied until the others arrived. After all, she sincerely doubted she would be able to again do this freezing attack from the morning, which she hadn't yet actually analysed to see what exactly she'd done to cause it.

She launched her Aqua Illusion attack at the creature again as it charged down the hallway at her, but it only slowed it down slightly. Diving out of the way as a claw passed through the space she'd once occupied, Mercury observed a large hole getting punched in the wall. She quickly regained her balance and started to back off, charging another attack when a shout she didn't recognize came from behind her.

"Deep Submerge!" Mercury flinched as a very large ball of water missed her by a couple of inches, impacting against the Youma and decimating one of his arms. She quickly turned, seeing another Senshi. She paused for a few seconds, trying to identify the other girl. She was shorter than her, with bright red hair. That pretty well eliminated any of the other Senshi.

Was this a new member of the team?

"Move!" The new Senshi bellowed, running forward and pulling Mercury by the arm. The blue haired girl was grateful for the help, as she saw the arm the new Senshi just had destroyed slowly growing back "Now stop getting in the way and move," the redhead said, sounding distinctly annoyed.

"R…right." Mercury stammered, jumping back and sliding her visor over her eyes to scan the Youma again. "This is a left-over Droid from the Dark Moon family. If it soaks up enough damage, it should dissolve."

"Got it," the redhead said, briefly wondering what the heck the dark moon family or a 'droid' were before charging at the enemy and starting into hand-to-hand combat. She could ask Setsuna later about that.

As she'd thought, the Senshi transformation kept the 'Droid' from sucking away any of her energy and her blows were actually denting the monster's body in. When she scanned it with her chi, she felt it was slowly drawing from the residue chi of the students on the chairs to heal itself. She heard Mercury starting to charge up her attack again and jumped away to join in.

From that point on, the battle was pretty well wrapped up. Although Sailor Moon wasn't there to administer a final blow, two Senshi constantly pounding away at its healing ability eventually destroyed the Droid.

When that finally happened, they watched instead of blowing up, turning back into a small, dark gem which then fell to the ground, breaking into pieces. Neptune shook her head and turned, starting to walk off before being stopped by Mercury.

"Excuse me?" The younger girl asked, catching the redhead's arm.

Shrugging her arm off and doing a quick chi scan she recognised the other Senshi as Ami. Seeing no harm, she stopped to see what she wanted.

"Who are you? You aren't one of the Senshi in our team, so who are you?" Mercury blurted.

The redhead turned her head slightly, so that Ami could see her profile. "Who I am is not important right now, bye"

-CM-

Setsuna rubbed her forehead. Ranma had just proceeded to make things a lot more complicated, unknowingly, of course. She smiled softly, it seemed that the collected Neptune is back as she watched Ranma walk off as if it was the most natural thing for her to do.

As the normal time line showed her, the outer Senshi wouldn't be revealed to the Inners even as Senshi for another few weeks, but as it was, Mercury, and soon all of the Inners, would at least know about Neptune. This could cause a problem regarding the outers' mission of checking heart crystals, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. She looked up in the sky, as if trying to pierce through a veil of darkness trying to discern who was the primary time mage for this time line.

All she could access were alternate timelines and hope beyond hope that whatever going to happen, the time mage knew what he was doing.

-CM-

Toltiir chuckled softly to himself as he continued watching his own project from his scrying well, the green haired Senshi being frustrated about not knowing what will happen. Boy oh boy, this will be fun...for him that is. His mouth split into a toothy mischievous grin. He willed a golden mirror out of the Amazon's secret vault and put it into Happosai's possession as he had run off with the Amazonian treasure, a few centuries back.

-CM-

Setsuna sighed, Haruka was supposed to awaken in only a few days and she had to be ready for the event. Hopefully the even more drastic derailing of the Senshi related timeline that had just occurred wouldn't affect it.

She needed to speak with both of them soon after that, maybe Ranma earlier. Sighing in irritation, the green haired woman teleported from the gates of time back into her bedroom. This was definately not her century.

END.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Curses, Confusion, and Confessions.

"Ranma-san, are you in here?" Ami Mizuno asked, looking through the wreckage of the Droid attack for her pigtailed study partner.

She had tried to chase after the new Senshi when she was in Senshi form, but the other Senshi had seemingly completely disappeared after walking around a corner, and her natural instincts as someone who wanted to someday become a doctor had taken over.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Ranma had also disappeared without a trace. Come to think of it, she hadn't really seen him since he'd started fighting the droid and she'd started evacuating the other students. She'd thought he'd been the person that was fighting the Droid when she blasted it with her Aqua Rhapsody, but that had turned out to be a girl.

She was just about to give up on looking for the pigtailed boy when a voice came from behind her. "Hey Ami, I was looking for you."

The dark-blue haired girl almost jumped out of her skin, quickly slipping something into a pocket and turning around to see that Ranma was standing behind her, looking slightly relieved. "Got kinda worried when I didn't see you outside. Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

"Oh, Yes. I'm fine," Ami said, after calming herself down. "I actually came in here looking for you." She looked him over for a moment, noting that there were tears all over his shirt and pant legs. "Oh, you're hurt!" she noted, grabbing for one arm.

"Nope, it's alright," the boy told her, shrugging her off. "I got out of the way when the Senshi showed up to get rid of that monster." He felt a little bit of annoyance at having to say something like that, even if he, or at the time, she, had been one of the Senshi in question. It made him sound like a complete coward. "Look, I just came back to make sure you're okay." He looked around the hallway for a moment, frowning. "I'm pretty sure class ain't going to start again today, so I'm heading home."

"Alright," Ami decided, letting her eyes narrow with a slight suspicion when the pigtailed boy turned to leave.

There was definitely something odd going on around here, especially since Ranma appeared actually not to have taken any serious wounds when she lifted his arm to get a look at it. For something like that to be the case, especially with how torn up his clothes were, he would have to have the healing ability of a Senshi.

Reaching into her pocket, the Senshi of Mercury brought out her computer. Yes, it had gotten a complete record of the battle with the Droid. She knew that Konatsu had told her and the other Senshi not to worry about Ranma, but most people they'd encountered with a magical signature of any sort usually ended up as either allies or deadly enemies, and she intended to find out precisely what side of that divide Ranma stood on.

-CM-

As he walked towards home, Ranma pulled out the small pen that he had used to become Sailor Neptune earlier in the afternoon.

Frowning at it, he twirled it a couple of times in his hand, then let out a long drawn out sigh. There was so much he does not understand about being a Senshi. Ami had said something along the lines of a group she belonged to, and as she only hanged out with one group of people it became clear they were all in middle school.

He still wondered how this disguise magic actually worked, since there clearly was absolutlely no visible difference between Ami in civilian and Senshi form. Her voice was the same as well. If not for him having been fooled as well until doing a deeper scan, he'd have declared that not even Kuno could be this oblivious.

That was one of the few times where he wondered if Kuno in his insanity could actually see through the disguise, while others couldn't.

Thinking about them, he wondered how much fighting capabilities could a couple of middle schoolers have against these demons? Did they even know what was necessary to fight these things? He looked up into the sky trying to find an answer. Well, he thought, from the few times he had seen them fight they weren't completely idiotic, like Kuno making speeches before fighting and leaving them completely open to attacks.

All the Inners went into a collective sneezing fit.

"Stupid rain, that's not the answer I wanted!" she mumbled as rain started to fall on her. Just as sudden as it had started, the rain stopped right when she turned the corner onto the street toward her current home. That was a new one, normally she'd get thoroughly soaked through. Maybe her new powers actually allowed her to stop rain?

She looked up again, muttering vile curses at water, rain and anything that is wet under his breath.

-CM-

"Sunday? …Yeah, sure. I guess," Haruka Tenoh replied, surprised, as she leaned back in a chair in Setsuna's living room. She had a phone held in one hand. "It's kind of early, though. You sure that you'll have my bike ready by then? Yeah, Okay. Goodbye," she finally said, hanging up the phone.

"What was that, Haruka-chan?" Nodoka asked as she entered the room from the kitchen.

"It was just my boss," the blonde explained. "He's got a good race booked on Sunday. Apparently Setsuna told him about it and he liked the idea of entering me into it."

"Setsuna-san did?" Nodoka asked, looking around. "Where is she? I thought that she would be back from work by now."

Haruka shrugged as she heard the front door to the house open. "Don't know. Haven't seen her since I got back," she explained.

"I'm home!" came Ranma's female voice from the front door.

"Hi Ranma. Hey, I just found out that I've…" Haruka trailed off as she saw Ranma enter the room, her clothes appearing as if they'd gone through a paper shredder, and her silk cloth is sticking to her body, outlining her breasts quite nicely. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Nothing, just another fight," Ranma told her dismissively.

Haruka's eye twitched violently, ignoring Ranma's distracting well formed breasts while Nodoka only looked slightly concerned, but also slightly exasperated, as though this was an everyday occurrence.

"Do you need the first-aid kit, Ranma?" the auburn haired woman asked, getting up from where she'd sat across from Haruka's chair.

"Nope, I'm alright, Aunt Nodoka," the pigtailed girl said, casually. "Now what was it you were saying, Haruka?"

"Oh… right," the blonde said, recomposing herself. "I have a race on Sunday, and I was wondering if you wanted to come," she told her, her mind finally catching up with her. "I won't mind if you go like that, though," she added with a smirk while trying to forget her frustration with Ranma and his fights.

"Sure, perv," Ranma blushed. "I ain't going to go like this though," she declared, pointing to her barely decent apparel, "But I will have to go as a girl, don't I?"

Haruka looked slightly sheepish. "Erm, yeah," she admitted, then quickly continued, "But it's only the race, so you don't have to worry about getting dressed up like last time."

Ranma nodded, "I'm going to change out of these wet clothes" she decided, then headed off toward the bathroom, intent on taking a bath.

Haruka licked her lips at seeing Ranma's tight posterior in her wet pants, then turned to Nodoka after seeing Ranma walk off. "What about you, Nodoka-san, want to come? I can get you in for free."

"No thank you, Haruka-chan. I have to do something that morning," Nodoka quickly told her, a small flicker of worry seeming to cross her face.

Haruka grimaced at the honorific and asked, "What do you have to do?"

Nodoka took a bit of a steadying breath, before speaking. "I've decided that I have imposed on Setsuna-san's hospitality for long enough and have also finally managed to get a message through to my parents. I shall be going to talk to them about regaining my original family name that morning."

-CM-

Kasumi Tendo blushed profusely as she hung up the phone in the residential area of the Crown. "Oh my," she mumbled, clutching a hand over each cheek.

"Is there something wrong, Kasumi-san?" Motoki asked as he walked through the house's living room. It was a fair question, as the eldest Tendo sister looked as if she were going to faint.

"N… No, Motoki-kun," Kasumi stammered, quickly. The boy left, but a few moments later, Unazuki entered.

"Hey Kasumi, my brother says there's something wrong," she said, as she caught a look at the brown haired girl's face and the beginning of a heavy blush. "Wow, did that doctor friend of yours call and ask you on a date or something? You look embarrassed."

"That… wasn't exactly it, Unazuki-chan," Kasumi squeaked.

"Well, what was it then?" the redhead asked, impatiently.

"I called Tofu-sensei's mother, t… to ask her how she got his father to settle down with her, since she said that he had the same problem that Tofu-sensei does," Kasumi explained, her blush getting even worse for a moment, if that were even possible.

"Ah, so you're finally doing something? What got you to act?" Unazuki asked, slumping onto a couch.

She knew that asking all these questions about Kasumi's life was a little rude, but the oldest Tendo had been pretty well the most interesting thing that had come along in a while, and she'd always fancied herself as a bit of a romantic. It was also a good thing to be able to concentrate on someone else's romantic life while she herself was still waiting for the perfect boy for her first kiss.

"Certainly NOT someone like this crazy stalker!" she muttered softly to herself, remembering her encounter with Kuno.

"I saw Ukyo-chan and Konatsu-kun in the restaurant yesterday," Kasumi explained. "It just made me think, so I thought that I would ask."

"So, what did she tell you?" the redhead excitedly asked, leaning forward. Now that sounded like it could become interesting.

Kasumi told her.

"Oh... Oh my," she stammered, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Now her own face tried to match the red of her hair.

-CM-

Ami Mizuno sat at her desk at home, several dozen school books stacked on one side.

She had only finished a couple of chapters tonight, because she had something more important to look at for the moment and she could always catch up with it later. Flipping open her Mercury Computer, she tabbed through the various recordings and file archives until she got to the sensor feeds from the battle this afternoon.

She brought up the video feed, sighing in relief when a coherent image popped up. She'd dropped the device at the entrance of the hallway where most of the battle had taken place when she'd exited. And when she'd returned and recovered it, it had been facing the Droid, but she hadn't been sure of what had happened in the meantime.

Playing back the video at a quarter speed and monitoring the energy readings, she was surprised to see that the magic signature that Ranma let off didn't change one bit as he fought. This meant he wasn't using magic at all, apart from a strange, faint signature that was woven into his life energy.

Most of what he was doing was within the realms of very good martial artists, in fact Makoto could do a decent amount of it. However, when he occasionally went into super-human bursts of speed, all the readings showed was an increased amount of life energy flowing through his body.

As the battle neared the time when she, as Sailor Mercury, was about to show up, she was about to shut the feed down. Her hand stopped about half an inch from the necessary key, though, as the machine suddenly did show that magical signature was spiking.

"Hmm?" she muttered, keying in the command to rewind several frames.

There it was. The Droid had been holding Ranma in its claws and she'd blasted it with an Aqua Rhapsody... and it happened. She zoomed the image in a little bit on Ranma, and saw as his form seemed to ripple and change, becoming smaller. His hair turned red and a petite looking girl was left as the final result, rolling away from the battle quickly.

Ami looked at the screen for several more seconds, stunned. Yes, she'd seen shape shifting in Youma before, but the energy she'd detected wasn't negative in any form. As the thoughts slowly ran through her head, another idea came to her. She and Ranma had been the only two people in the building, and that new Senshi had come out of the doorway that Ranma had rolled in through.

She had no idea what this meant and it also brought her thoughts to the new Senshi.

Ami knew that all known Senshi -with the well explained exception of Moon- represented the planets of the solar system, with Mamoru standing for the Earth. However, considering that, that made one guardian of Earth and four Senshi representing the inner planets.

That left four planets without Senshi: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

Although the use of a brute-force water attack was a hint, Ami didn't want to speculate around with too few facts. Luna and Artemis propably would know more about it and she couldn't just look into the files on the Mercury Computer, as they were password protected and she didn't yet remember that form her former life.

She shook her head. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on with Ranma and the new Shenshi, but she quickly made a note to bring it up next meeting and make sure that it was seriously dealt with.

-CM-

Shampoo let out a long breath as she finally managed to slog through the poorly maintained paths that had been set up to ensure that outsiders couldn't get near the village's main paths, wiping the sweat from her brow. Lowering her hand, she cursed as she saw that there was a small line of blood on it. She would have to get it treated by the village healers when she arrived.

Trudging down the main path, she thought about what had brought her to this point. Her great-grandmother, Ranma, and even Mousse had decided to go against both her wishes and the tribe's laws, and she couldn't understand why. All right, after Saffron she had to privately admit that she knew why Ranma had done it, but her great-grandmother?

There was something wrong, there. As she approached the village's front gates and the guard who was on duty there, she quickly made a series of hand signals that indicated her as a friend. The return signals were made, and she walked up to the sentry.

"I am Xian Pu, warrior of the Joketsuzoku," she identified herself, in strong and clear Chinese. How wonderful it was to speak her own language once again. She'd been enjoying it ever since she reached the shore, well, ever since she'd managed to turn back to human form at least.

"Xian Pu?" the guard asked, her eyes slightly wide.

Shampoo was about to nod, when the guard started yelling about an intruder and raising her weapon. It was a good thing for the purple haired Chinese girl that she didn't start looking around for the threat. As it was, she barely got her bonbori up in time to block the guard's first strike.

-CM-

"Ranma?" Haruka asked as the pigtailed boy ran slowly through a Kata in front of her in the Meiou house's back yard.

"Hmm?" the pigtailed boy asked, not stopping in his movements.

The blonde questioned doing what she was about to for a moment, before deciding that she may as well bite the bullet and ask. "Why do you call Nodoka 'aunt?'" she finally asked and was startled as he fumbled in the middle of his stance.

Dropping a raised foot to the ground, he looked at her, startled. "What do you mean?" he asked, lamely.

She sighed. "You know what I mean. That Kuonji guy pretty well identified her as your mom, and I asked her afterwards… so what's with the aunt Nodoka stuff. I mean, if you were trying to keep the relation hidden from me and Setsuna, why are you still doing it?"

Ranma sighed. "Look, I really don't wanna talk about it."

Haruka thought for a second, and then growled. "You know, I really want to hit you right now," she growled, clenching her fists.

"Huh?" he wondered in confusion, stopped his Kata and turned toward Haruka.

"Ranma, I'm not stupid," she started. "You've been acting weird since yesterday, and I thought it had something to do with your mom. I know there's SOMETHING wrong, and when I try to find out, all you say is 'I don't wanna talk about it.'" She shook her head. "So, are you going to tell me what's wrong, or should I just give up?"

Ranma just stared at Haruka for a moment, unsure of what to say. He was pretty sure that telling her to forget about it again would be an incredibly stupid thing to say, especially since she was glaring at him rather hotly, but he wasn't sure of the alternative. He definitely couldn't tell her about the Senshi thing, for a number of reasons, but she'd asked. Ranma let out a sigh of resignation. He fidgeted nervously as he looked down at his feet, unable to bring himself to look at Haruka.

Haruka let out an insufferable sigh, throwing her hands up into the air, as she turned around and started to walk back toward the house.

Haruka stopped and turned her head slightly sideways. "Look, I understand this macho-I-have-to-be-strong bull you are doing right now, but no one is an island. What you are doing right now is not only hurting yourself, but it's also hurting me as well. I care about you, That's why I want to hear what your problem is."

With that, Haruka left the martial artist to his own thoughts as she reentered the house.

-CM-

"Co-chan..." Happossai said as he slowly approached Cologne, his voice trailed off a little bit. Speaking her native language, hoping that this would make it easier.

The sun was setting, and colouring the sky with streaks of purple and red, as dusk quickly approached. The blanket of night that would soon cover the sky as the last ray of lights illuminated the clouds.

Cologne was deep in thoughts, still contemplated how she should react to Happosai. She turned slowly to Happosai, stopping her floor sweeping. Cologne looked around seeing that they are alone. Concentrated and focused her energy, the air around her shimmered softly, as the image of the old crone wavers, like unzipping a zipper a figure of a young woman of no more than twenty eight years old stepped out, replacing the image of the gnarled old woman. The only thing that had remained constant was the staff that she was holding in her hands.

Her long rich blue hair framed her heart shaped face, running down to cover her deep aquamarine dress she was wearing. The dress wrapped around her voluptuous body quite nicely, show casing her cleavage with a deep V neck line. Her eyes were red, shining with a twinkle, like a pair of dark rubies piercing into the soul of Happosai. Cologne looked demurely at Happosai, who fidgeted his feet as he looked at the true form of his wife.

Happosai, knowing the full implication of the transformation, changed to his true form as well. He was buff, his muscles bulging from every part of his body. He had a build of a body-builder than a martial artist. He was big of a man, towering a foot over the current younger Cologne. His dark hair combed to the side accentuating his hard black almost alien eyes. His furrowed eyebrows relaxed a little bit as he finished his transformation.

Cologne drew from the environment to keep her health, while he drew from the female ki, but more precisely lust. Until recently, he had been solely been relying on lust, which had clouded his judgment altogether. One of the main dangers of drawing from a single emotion was the martial artist would be consumed by that single emotion, for him it was lust and his body had rejected any other form of energy. Magic, however, was a different source altogether. It was much purer than chi, and with it his lust-filled mind was purged and he could finally be able to think clearly for the first time in close to two and a half centuries.

Unable to contain herself, Cologne glomped onto Happosai tightly holding him for dear life. Happosai tentatively wrapped his arms around his Amazon wife.

"Co-chan, are you still mad..." Happosai started to talk.

Cologne captured his lips in a heated kiss, effectively cutting him off, her hands roamed all over his muscular body, and she started to desperately pull his shirt off. Happosai stunned at first, then returned the gesture and responded to the loving ministration of his wife.

Shallow of breath from arousal, "Talk later, you have more than two hundred years of husbandly duty to make up, Happy," Cologne whispered throatily into her husband's ears.

Not able to think either, Happosai clumsily stumbled, with Cologne kissing and licking him, up the stairs of the Duck Cafe to Cologne's room...

-CM-

Sleeping in the same bed with Ranma normally was a treat for Haruka. It felt surpisingly good to have him close to herself and waking up in the morning with him close to her, regardless if male or female -although the latter had cost her some time to convince him of.

Tonight however it was annoying, as Ranma obviously couldn't sleep, turning around constantly as if something was on his mind. This had the effect of her being kept awake as well. It finally resulted in Ranma getting out of bed and starting to pace in the semi-dark room.

She finally had enough. "Ok, Ranma. What's the problem?" she slurred, getting out of bed as well, stretching her arms and thrusting her chest out in the process.

Ranma eyes zoned into her bra-covered breasts, hypnotized, temporarily forgetting what he wanted to say to Haruka. Haruka had at first worn a nightie when sleeping in the same bed as Ranma, but recently had decided to sleep wearing her undergarments, saying that after all he slept in his boxers and muscle shirt.

Finally, coming to be fully awake, Haruka noticed this and stretched sexily with a smoky look in her eyes, which she directed at Ranma. "Sooo, Ranma, can't decide how to have your way with me?"

Ranma sputtered, trying to come up with something, "I...I...I...want..." he stuttered out incoherently.

Haruka couldn't hold it in anymore as she watched Ranma's deer in the headlight expression and burst out laughing. The sight of him standing there in his undergarments like that was too funny.

Ranma pouted and umphed as he tried to be indignant about Haruka laughing at him, then he just grinned mischievously and jumped on her and started tickling her as revenge. Haruka's peal of laughter turned into a combination of cries of mercy and guffaws as she tried to squirm her way out of Ranma's fast hands hitting all of her tickle spots.

Soon, the tickling became gentle caresses and the mirth that was in their eyes became something else. Ranma initiated a kiss. Haruka returned it whole-heartedly. Haruka slowly broke the kiss reluctantly and hugged Ranma to her.

"So what do you want, Ranma?" Haruka finally asked.

"Well," Ranma began, "I was thinkin 'bout what you said earlier about tellin' you what's botherin' me and stuff"

"Mmmhmmm" said Haruka, as she stretched herself across Ranma's body, laying her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

"I want to settle the Tendo fiancé problem, since I only want one fiancé from now on. I am planning to go back to Nerima tomorrow to make it official," Ranma told her as he tenderly stroked her hair, the action at first was somewhat alien but at the same time felt so right and natural.

"I'm coming with you, and that's final," Haruka decided, not putting up with any of Ranma's ego.

Ranma looked like he wanted to protest, but the look of determination on Haruka's face caught whatever he was about to say and shoved it back down his throat. Ranma nodded and bent down to kiss Haruka softly on the lips for a goodnight kiss.

There was a glint in Haruka's eyes. Her arms tightened around him and splaying her legs around his waist to pin him down to the bed completely. Instinctively, Ranma tried to push Haruka off, but his hands instead cupped her breasts, to which Haruka just purred throatily, the vibration of her purr sending delicious waves of pleasure directly to his crotch.

"Ha-Ha-Haruka?" Ranma stammered out, the soft pressure of their crotches rubbing against each other causing him to wince, but his hands remained cupped on her breasts. One certain part of his did appreciate the stimulation and Haruka felt it through both, his boxers and her panties. Encouraged, she continued her efforts.

It was right then, when feeling his most manly part pressing against her most private area, that Ranma's thoughts crashed head-on into a wall. Now of all times his experiences from Nerima -especially the raging reactions of the youngest Tendo came to him.

He closed his eyes bracing himself for the hit.

But it never came, "Ranma, what's wrong?" a look of concern settled on her countenance as she looked down at the wincing form her fiancé.

"Let's get it over with" Ranma said peaking out through one eye slowly, but what he saw was not the angry face of his fiance, but one of concern and a tint of mischief.

Haruka took what he said as an invitation, she reached into his pants, and squeezed his swollen member gently. Ranma's eyes bugged out to the size of dinner plates. "Wha-What are you doing?"

"You said 'get it over with', what else could you mean other than getting this over with?" Haruka grinned toothily, as she squeezed him when she said this to emphasize her point, knowing full well that probably was not what he meant. He was too shy for that, but she wanted an excuse to grope him. Wild horse indeed, which caused Haruka to question Ranma's parentage. She shelved this information to ask Nodoka for later.

"I..I..I meant for you to hit me," Ranma responded.

"Why would I want to do that?" Haruka asked lazily, she started to stroke him pulling his skin with it.

Ranma moaned softly as he tried to form some type of coherent thought, but he was too scared and too aroused to say anything.

"I'm waiting" Haruka said coyly, she squeezed him again for good measure.

"Uhhh," Ranma moaned and saying the first thing that came to mind, "In Nerima, I get hit whenever I do something perverted. "

"WHAT?" Haruka yelled, Ranma flinched and pulled his hands away from her breasts as fast as possible.

The rage effectively killed the mood, Haruka looked down at her fiance's cowering form and started to curse herself for the outburst. She sighed, seeing that she had to do something about that, unhooked her bra and took it off completely.

"What are you doing?" Ranma squeaked, trying to avert his gaze away from her breasts. He still remembered that incident the first day at the Tendo home, which essentially had poisoned his relationship with Akane right form the start.

What Haruka did afterward completely shocked him: she took his hands and put them on her breasts. He tentatively squeezed them on instinct the softness of her breast palmed within his hands. It was an exotic experience for him.

Haruka moaned softly, she was still a lesbian, but Ranma is Ranma. He fell into his own category. Also those wet dreams featuring his girl form and sometimes this form had completely desensitized her hardcore lesbianism for him only. She loved him, that was all which matters. She no longer cared whether Ranma was in male or female form anymore. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, making sure to press her breasts onto his chest.

After a while, Ranma finally relaxed. "So...yeah," he started again tentatively, "I got hit every time I did something they think I am perverted. Considering what some of them did, that happened often..."

Haruka put a finger against his lips silencing him altogether. "I don't care, once we're married we are going to so many things that are 'perverted'. I won't hit you for doing something like that. I want you to do some of those things to me, when you are ready." She propped herself up and tenderly pecked his lips, and then snuggled into him for the night.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30: From Dream to Reality - the Return to Nerima.

The sky was red, but Ranma couldn't see a sign of the sun as he walked slowly through the streets of Nerima. The buildings on either side all seemed to have been caught in a massive martial arts duel, having crumbled almost completely, and the streets were spider-webbed with cracks.

"What happened here?" he wondered aloud, before rounding the corner that lead to the Tendo Dojo. The front gates were knocked off of their hinges, laying on the ground in front of the entrance, and the walls were half demolished, as if Ryouga had used them to train his braking point technique.

Worried, the pigtailed martial artist increased speed, running into the compound's front yard, only to stop cold as he caught a view into the tea room.

The whole Tendo family was there, along with Genma and Nodoka. The problem was that they had all seemingly turned to stone. Distantly, he noted that Akane had been caught half way through pouring a cup of green tea, the tea having frozen together with her. As if to cement the disturbing image, Haruka was standing in the doorway to the front hall, seemingly leaning casually against the frame, though she was just as immobile as the rest of them.

"What the hell is going on here?" he yelled, turning immediately at the sound of an explosion, quite a shock in the almost completely silent world. A strange song began to fill the silence around him. It was very beautiful, and yet it announced the coming of death.

All of a sudden even Ranma was afraid, the fear reaching his very core.

As he looked up into the sky, from where he heard the song, he saw a shape trace itself in fire, some sort of crooked looking lower case romaji H with a cross at the top. He only saw this for an instant, before it errupted into a wave of pure destruction which swallowed everything. He saw the statues getting pulverised and then the destruction swallowed him as well.

The world became completely dark and silent.

-CM-

"Gah!" Ranma gasped, as he shot upright in his bed. "Weird dream..." he muttered, scrubbing his eyes free of the sleep in their corners.

He looked down at the sleeping form of Haruka, lying on her stomach now with her hand somehow having made its way to his crotch in her sleep. He froze suddenly when seeing the result of this, expecting to get hit. Thoughts of what had happened last night filtered through his head. Calming down, he looked down, with a genuine smile formed on his lips, at his very tomboyish fiancé.

How could he had been so lucky with her? He just hoped that this was not the calm before the storm that would come. But knowing his chaotic life, this was exactly what it would be. Shelving his chaotic life for contemplation for a later time, as he absentmindedly stroked her hair to which she just snuggled closer into him. Thank goodness she was a heavy sleeper -though not even close to his league- because he would have woken her up for sure.

Looking at the alarm clock that rested next to the bed, he cursed. It was 5:30, which meant that he probably wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, especially after all these nights of getting a good night's rest. Sighing, he slowly disentangled himself from Haruka and got out of bed. He grabbed a set of clothes out of the dresser.

"May as well do some training," he muttered to himself softly.

Before exiting the room he looked back at his fiancé, he flinched as something jogged his memory about the first time he left her sleeping in the morning a few days back. He shuddered softly at the memory at what Haruka had made him do, suffice to say wearing a g-string set in his male form for the entire day was not something he wanted to repeat. He slowly walked over to his desk to write "Out Training" for Haruka.

As he finished up his note for Haruka, his eyes caught on to the shape of the transformation pen that was sitting, half hidden under a book, on his desk. "Yeah, almost forgot about that." Picking up the little blue stick, he stuck it in a pocket, reluctantly.

As he left the house, he didn't notice that an upstairs window was open and a face surrounded by green hair was watching from it.

-CM-

A short time later in a vacant lot near the house, a blue-green clad redhead moved fluidly through several stances, her mind quickly cataloguing every movement that her Senshi power enhanced body made. Since she had decided yesterday that she would have to master the powers of the transformation, she figured that now would be the best time to get some practice in.

Since Cologne had taught her how to access her chi in this form, this was the first time in weeks she could access a considerable amount of her chi. Furthermore, she had been meditating for the most part, while not fully testing the extent of her enhanced form. When she'd first gotten her curse, her unfamiliarity with the form had come back to bite her in the ass, hard, in her first couple fights. That mistake she did not want to make twice, especially now with so much more on the line.

As her body went through the motions, she examined the energy that flowed through it.

Her chi was finally flowing through her system, but magic was flowing countercurrent to the chi -she figured that this was how the magic was protecting her from being drained- since there wasn't a single flow that a creature could tap into and just redirect the flow to itself. The problem with this was, that she couldn't feel and manipulate magic nearly as well as she could chi. In fact, she could barely feel it.

Ranma was not aware of it, but part of it was psychological. Ever since getting the curse, all magic he'd encountered either resulted in pain or embarrassment for him. His unconscious dislike of magic had become strong enough, that it now hampered her efforts to feel it as a Senshi.

Stopping the kata she had been performing, she cupped her hands in front of her body and tried focusing energy into them. An instant later, she found herself shouting "Deep Submerge!" and releasing a huge ball of water. She then concentrated her chi as much as possible and then forced it into the ball of water itself. Her eyes widened as she realized that the ball was headed straight for a brick wall, and given what it had done to the demons she'd fired it at, it would result in unneeded damage.

Wincing and waiting for the property damage, the redhead cringed as the ball of energy filled water completely vaporized the wall after hitting it, leaving behind debris. While looking at what she'd done, a sharp whistle interrupted her concentration, as she tried to figure out how much chi she depleted with that attack.

"Gah!" Sailor Neptune yelped, jumping about five feet before spinning around to see an amused Sailor Pluto standing off to the side of the vacant lot. "Don't do that, Setsuna," she gasped, glaring.

Pluto just smiled a little more as she stepped into the lot. "I didn't know you could do that with your magic attacks, it normally just hits an enemy without causing much damage to the surroundings."

"Huh?" Neptune wondered eloquently.

"I haven't seen anything like that since, well, the last time you were alive. There were this group of women who had mastered both magic and chi, that they were able to access both like what you did just there," Pluto answered.

Ranma looked at the older woman, "I learned it from the old ghoul."

Pluto simply nodded. "Cologne? I haven't seen her for a while, how has she been? Is she still pretending to be old with that glamour spell of hers?" the green-haired woman just smirked at Ranma.

"Wait, what do you mean pretending?" the red-haired Senshi perked up somewhat at some form of information about the mysterious Amazon Elder.

Pluto's smirk became a flat out grin, "Don't ask me, not my story to tell."

Ranma let out a sigh, and then said " I have a question for you."

The green haired woman tilted her head sideways, "Shoot" she said simply.

"Does becoming a Senshi give you weird dreams?" asked Ranma tentatively.

Pluto looked at her, confused. "Weird dreams?" she asked, surprised. "I don't understand."

"Well," the aquatranssexual Senshi said, explaining. "Normally, I don't have many dreams, and there has only been one that I can really remember for long when I wake up. This morning I had a dream that I could remember after, and it was kinda disturbing."

Pluto stood for a moment, in deep thought. She knew that both Mars and Neptune had had a weak form of dream based precognition in the Silver Millennium, and that Mars' had become stronger in the modern age with her training as a miko. Still, the Silver Millennium hadn't bothered doing much research into it, since the time gates were much more powerful. Maybe Ranma's intense mental focus had enhanced his abilities as well?

"Could you tell me about this dream?" she asked, slowly. As Neptune did so, Pluto's sense of worry began to grow. "Could you draw that symbol you said you saw at the end of the dream for me?" she finally asked.

"Oh, sure." Ranma replied, concerned due to the worried look that Pluto was giving her. Kneeling down on the ground in the lot, she noted that it was soft dirt and began to make an imprint in it. As she finished and looked up, Pluto's face had turned a sickly grey color. "Erm, Setsuna, are you alright?" she asked. The green haired woman didn't answer, simply seeming to pull her large, key-shaped staff from nowhere and teleporting away.

"What was wrong with her?" Ranma wondered, scuffing the symbol of Saturn into non-existence with her boot. As she looked up, she noticed that the sun was coming up. "Damn, I'd better get back," she decided, touching her broach and willing the transformation back to civilian form.

After all it propably would be a long day.

-CM-

Haruka slowly walked down the stairs. After reading Ranma's short note, she assumed she'd find him at one specific place sooner or later and walked into the kitchen. However, the only person present there was Nodoka; the older woman standing by the stove and being busy with cooking something.

"Good morning, Nodoka-san," she greeted her, looking around the room. "What are you cooking? It smells good."

Nodoka smiled brilliantly at her, "I wanted to try something new, American style omelets, where they put everything in it and then some cheese folded into the egg." Haruka just nodded as she poured herself a glass of water and sat down at the dining table.

At that moment the front door opened and the two women in the kitchen heard someone enter the house. "I'm home!" Ranma called

"Welcome home!" Nodoka called back, automatically.

After the redhead entered the kitchen, wearing her usual Chinese pants and a grey tank top, Haruka looked at her curiously. "So, how was training?"

Ranma shrugged. "Nothing really, needed to work on practicing in my girl form since I haven't done it for a while."

"I could have helped you with that," Haruka said, grinning wolfishly.

Ranma just shook her head. She knew exactly what Haruka meant with that, especially after last night and since Haruka's grin was more of the perverse kind than anything else.

Behind the two, Nodoka just brought up a hand, trying to conceal a grin. Originally she'd been unsure about how to feel about Haruka's very obvious interest in Ranma's girl form -especially after the scene on the front lawn- but had finally decided with the help of Tenoh-san to let Ranma figure it out for himself.

"So, what are you two planning for today?" she finally asked, after getting her rebellious expression under control.

Haruka turned to Ranma as if asking him whether or not she should answer for him. Ranma nodded and said "I… think I have to head over to Nerima today." This caused a surprised look from her 'aunt', and Haruka grabbed his hand squeezing it in support. "There's some stuff I got to do."

"I see," Nodoka said, as she looked down at the linked hands. "I assume that it involves the Tendo family?"

"Well, more along the lines of breaking off the engagement," Ranma responded.

"I'm afraid I can't go with you, Ranma," Nodoka said, her face growing angry. "That id… Mr. Tendo," she continued, catching herself before she said something that she would regret, "told me that I am not welcome on his property."

"Yeah," Ranma said, remembering what Nodoka had told her when she'd first come to the Minato ward. That had been one mean move and she'd try to make a point about that as well.

"Well, I'm going with you. I'll drive you over to Nerima," Haruka decided. She saw that Ranma was about to object and cut her off. "I told you last night, I'm going with you."

Ranma just sighed in defeat. "Alright, just let me get changed first," she sighed, heading upstairs.

-CM-

Ami Mizuno sat in the living room of the Hikawa Shrine, where she and the other Senshi normally met, waiting patiently. Rei Hino was already there, though she'd gone back to doing her chores until the others -and this primarily aimed at Usagi- arrived. Ami had offered to help, especially since Rei looked unusually exhausted, but the miko had told her not to worry about it.

Perhaps it was stress. After the little disaster some days ago, they'd paid their respects for the unknown victim at the shrine and each of them had tried in her own way to deal with the fact that they simply couldn't save everyone. Rei as the most spiritual of them had taken it the worst.

As she waited, the dark-blue haired Senshi opened up her Mercury Computer again, scanning through the data she'd acquired. She was hoping to come up with some more concrete facts before she presented what she'd found to the others, since some of them, namely Venus and Moon, were inclined not to take something serious unless it was a hard certainty rather than just suspicious things going on.

"Hi, Ami-chan," came a cheerful voice, causing the girl to jump a little and knock her computer to the floor.

"Makoto?" she asked, after turning around to see the tall brown-haired girl smiling down at her. To Ami, from her sitting position, Makoto looked even taller than she already was.

"You must be studying something interesting," the taller girl said, kneeling at the table next to her friend. "So, why did you call us here this morning?"

"I'd rather hold off on explaining that until everyone shows up." Ami said, eliciting a nod from Makoto.

Ami had noted Makoto's unusually good mood. Recently she seemed much more energetic than normal, also was more often away on activities of her own. She also no longer looked after boys or compared them to her old sempai. Ami had a suspicion what was going on, but felt that it was none of her business.

Minako was the next one to arrive, carrying Artemis. She grumbled something about having to run in order to arrive on time. Usagi showed up last -over ten minutes later- with a hurried apology that everyone other than Rei accepted without grumbling. By now they were used to her coming too late.

"So Ami, why did you make me run all the way here from detention?" Usagi whined, though the other girls could hear a bit of teasing in the question.

Before Rei could shoot back with her usual gibe about why Usagi was in detention on a half day, Ami broke in with the only sentence that she could think of that would establish the mood of the meeting as serious and stop these two from again arguing -something that would surely derail the whole thing.

"I saw a new Senshi yesterday."

The little talk that had been going on between Minako and Makoto, as well as the feline greeting of Luna and Artemis, stopped dead at that statement. "What?" Came six questions at once and Ami understood their surprise.

After Minako joining them, they'd thought that their ranks were complete, as no more Senshi had appeared, despite there being some planets left without a Senshi. Even Chibi-Usa had not mentioned any other Senshi than the ones currently gathered in this very room.

Ami nodded, keying up the video of the fight on her computer and fast-forwarding it to the point where the mysterious new Senshi had shown up. The other Senshi crowded around her, the two cats each taking a shoulder as they watched the two Senshi tag-teaming the Droid into destruction. No one said anything until the fight was over.

"Wow, another water Senshi?" Usagi asked, all traces of her whining gone for the moment. "I thought each of us has unique attacks?"

"Hmm…" Artemis mumbled, causing the black cat on Ami's other shoulder to look towards him sharply.

"Do you know something about this Senshi?" Luna asked. Her and Artemis's memories had both been badly mangled during the cryogenic sleep that had brought them to the modern time, though he obviously knew different things than she did, which sometimes annoyed her to no end.

"I think so," Artemis said. "She looks different, though."

"So who is she?" Minako asked, curious who this mysterious new Senshi could be. Since she'd been the last to join the team, she'd never had experienced the event of someone new joining them.

"I think that was Sailor Neptune," Artemis said.

"What?" All of the Inner Senshi exclaimed at once

The white cat threw an annoyed glare sweep on to all of the girls, before hopping onto the middle of the table and continuing "She was a member of the Outer Senshi. I'm guessing that the reason I remember them and Luna doesn't is because Venus had a lot of involvement with them."

"I did, why?" Minako asked, curious, as she leaned forward.

"Well, you were the leader of the Inner Senshi at that time, and you occasionally coordinated actions with them," the cat explained.

"So, we've got another new Senshi, that's great!" Usagi said, excitedly.

"If we can find her," Ami interjected, causing the blonde to deflate a little. "When the battle was over yesterday, she put on a very good disappearing act. It's possible that she doesn't want to work with the rest of us, or that she's as confused about her powers as we were when we got ours, only without Luna or another Senshi to explain."

"There is another problem," Artemis said, even though he didn't want to add any bad news to the situation. "The Outer Senshi usually weren't involved in anything short of full scale wars during the Silver Millennium. If Neptune did retain any of her memories from that time, she may be… a little more willing than you are to inflict collateral damage."

Makoto rolled her eyes when hearing that. "Let me guess... Her awakening pretty much means that we can very soon expect some other group trying to do the whole world conquest stuff?" Seeing the mooncat nod, she snorted. "After two times it starts to get old..."

Usagi frowned. "I don't like the sound of that," she said, perfectly serious for the first time all meeting. "The next time one of us sees Sailor Neptune, we should do all we can to talk to her. It's after all our unity that gives us our strength."

The other four girls and the cats all nodded and the room fell into a slightly tense silence, before Usagi broke it. "Hey Rei, can I borrow a Manga?" The black haired Senshi face faulted, her hands twitching spastically.

Seeing the usual exchanges betwene these two starting, Ami took the chance to talk to Artemis while everyone else was distracted. "You know, something occured to me. Each Senshi has her own elemental domain, Usagi was right about that. How can we both have water attacks?"

Artemis looked as if he's expected this. "Actually, while you both have water as a base, that's all to it. Neptune draws her power from the raw strength of the ocean and throws it at her enemies, while you actually turn water into a different form like fog or ice. You mentioned that ice attack. That's part of your true power; that you think of yourself purely as a water Senshi hinders you at discovering it."

Ami nodded. That actually made sense. While Neptune used water in its pure form in her magic, hers transformed the water into a different state, even in her attack that looks like a water projectile, remembering that it felt unusually cold. It would be in her best interest to discover more about what she really was capable of.

There was also the matter with Neptune's connection to Ranma. She knew who she could ask about this strange matter.

-CM-

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Haruka asked as her car turned the final corner onto the street where the Tendo Dojo was located. It'd taken them a couple of hours to get through central Tokyo's legendary traffic, as Nerima was on the other side of the city from Minato and she'd gotten a little lost after leaving the freeway, but Ranma had just sat there for the whole time, a troubled look on his face as he looked into the roof.

"Oh, huh? Yeah, I'm sure. No point in putting it off, right?" Ranma said absently, refocusing his eyes on the world around him, noticing the familiar road.

Haruka looked at him a little worriedly, but decided that she wouldn't ask again. Seeing the large stone walls and wooden gate that marked the Dojo, hard to miss even though she hadn't seen it before, she brought the car to a stop and turned off the engine.

"We're here," she told him.

Ranma merely nodded, opening the door on his side of the car and getting out.

Unknown to anyone in or around the Tendo home, a small black clad shape lurked in the bushes on the other side of the road. "I'm sorry Ranma-san," it moaned softly, before hopping off.

Moments later the trunk of the car popped open, two small figures hopped out of it quietly and followed Ranma and Haruka toward the house as inconspicuous as possible, when they were near the door they hopped into a tree nearby.

-CM-

These few months had been quite hard for her.

The house had been in absolute disarray for the first week that Kasumi went to college. Nabiki did not have the heart to worry Kasumi about the housework since she can no longer do anything about it currently, so she left it out of her letter to Kasumi. Nabiki may be the Ice Queen of Furinkan High, but she was not so callous about her own family.

Within the week, the entire house had became a cesspool: trash littered everywhere, dirty laundry piled up to the size of mountains. Akane might have tried her hardest to do all the work, but she was no homemaker like Kasumi and the sheer scale of what actually was involved in keeping everything together had overwhelmed her.

It wasn't until she had to step in and make the fathers do their share chores -mainly keeping the house clean- that the house had became much more passable. She had threatened the fathers that Akane was going to be permanently cooking their meals until they started to move their lazy behinds to clean the house. Although Akane had grumbled a little over using her lack of cooking skill as extrotion measure, it had worked.

She let out a long drown out sigh as she got up and went to the door, since she heard a knock at the door.

Opening the door, the middle Tendo sister's eyes widened as she saw the pigtailed boy standing on the other side, a taller blonde haired person standing next to him. Her eyes briefly passed over the other person, noting that it was a woman in decently fitting men's clothing. Par for the course considering Ranma, really. As her eyes came back to the boy in question, she noted that he wasn't dirty or hungry looking, so he wasn't coming back to ask to stay.

Off to the side, she saw Happossai and Cologne sitting in a tree watching the scene in front of them intently. Happossai caught her eye and put a finger onto his mouth asking her to keep their presence unknown. She slightly nodded her head, even she did not want to get on Happossai's bad side.

"Hi, Ranma-kun," she said, in her usual calm drawl, not letting any of the surprise she actually felt surface.

"Hey, Nabiki. Who's around right now?" Ranma asked, fidgeting.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow, but answered anyways. "Daddy and Mr. Saotome are playing shogi in the living room, as usual. Akane's at volleyball club practice. So, who's your friend, Ranma? You didn't introduce her to me. That's pretty rude, you know," she finished.

"Oh, right," Ranma realized, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Nabiki, this is Haruka. Haruka, Nabiki," he gestured between the two.

"Nice to meet you," Haruka said, bowing slightly.

"So, I guess I should let you in," Nabiki answered, backing away from the door and turning to walk into the house. Ranma nodded, following, with Haruka behind him.

As the two walked through the front hall, the blonde's eyes flicked around, taking note of her surroundings.

It had been where Ranma had lived for two years, and even by itself, a singly house this size was an interesting sight in the middle of Tokyo. As her eyes moved across various decorations on the walls, she noticed that there were many barely visible patches where fresh paint, and presumably wall patches, had been applied. The place also seemed to be in a state of slight disorganization, as if it hadn't been thoroughly cleaned for a while. She was jolted out of her inspection by the sound of two men shouting.

"Boy-Ranma my boy, you're back!" came a double shout from the shogi board, as a thin brown haired man hopped from his seat to run towards the pigtailed martial artist. Next to him, a fat, bald man managed to drag himself to his feet on a pair of crutches. He also had several bandages on other parts of his body and he winced as he started to slowly move towards Ranma.

"I see you've come to regret your dishonorable ways and are willing to come back," the bald man said, in a low, gravelly voice.

"The schools will finally be joined!" the other one shouted, happily. The two kept on like this for a moment, while Ranma's face began to darken.

Haruka looked at the brown-haired girl who was standing next to her and asked, "Are they always like this?" She had heard Ranma's stories, but this was stupid.

The other girl just shrugged. "It gets worse," she answered, casually.

It was at about this point that Ranma lost patience. "Would you two shut up?" he bellowed, at the top of his lungs. Soun and Genma stopped. They stopped dead, gaping at Ranma. Yes, he had yelled at or about them before, but never with this kind authority. "I ain't here to join any schools or nothin like that," he snapped.

"Hi everyone, I'm home," came a familiar voice that caused Ranma to stiffen. "Hey Nabiki, there's a really expensive looking yellow sports car out front, what's… going… on?" Akane's question trailed off, as she entered the living room to see the group that was gathered there. "Ranma?" she breathed, astonished.

"Erm, Akane… I…" Ranma started, but was cut off as the blue-black haired girl ran towards him.

"Baka, you came back. You came back!" Akane said, happily, as she grabbed Ranma in a hug. The pigtailed boy looked distinctly uncomfortable, as he sent a helpless glance around the room.

Nabiki was looking on with an unreadable expression. Genma and Soun were looking extremely hopeful. Haruka was the biggest surprise. She did look a little annoyed, but not at the clobbering level, and she just returned his look with a helpless shrug of her own.

"Akane," Ranma finally said, wriggling to try and get out of her hug.

Akane let go a few seconds later, looking up into Ranma's face. What she saw there was a mixture of uncertainty and sadness. "You… you didn't come back to see me, did you?" she asked, softly.

"I…" Ranma stammered.

"It's okay Ranma," Akane said, trying to mask the look on her face. The fact that one of her dreams was to be an actor didn't help at all.

"A-Akane," Ranma stuttered out.

"Idiot, I wanted you to come back!" the girl yelled, before running off.

"Akane, wait!" Ranma called, preparing to charge after her. He was interrupted by the sound of Genma Saotome's battle cry as he charged at his former son, Soun Tendo close behind. "Damn it," he hissed, glaring at the two. "Someone go after her!"

He could instantly KO both of them, but Genma looked badly injured and the force needed could screw him up further. Ranma's fight got slightly more complex as Genma shimmered for a moment, and then disappeared. That Genma would use the forbidden techniques just to attack him pissed Ranma off to no end.

This meant that the gloves were off.

Meanwhile Haruka looked at Nabiki. The middle Tendo sister was starting to move, but she was going pretty slow. Haruka pelted out of the house at top speed and just managed to see the trailing end of a blue skirt trailing around a corner two blocks away.

"Damn it!" she swore, speeding up to not lose her 'prey'.

-CM-

She found Akane about five minutes later. The blue-black haired girl was sitting at the edge of a canal, chucking rocks in… big rocks. She winced as another of the large stone projectiles hit the surface with a growl of fury, but took a deep breath and moved in.

"Akane-san?" she asked, cautiously.

"Hmm?" Akane asked, turning towards the voice. Her eyes were red with tears. "Who are you?" she immediately fell into a combat stance, right arm extended in front while her left defended her chest.

"My name's Haruka Tenoh. I was at your house when you came home," Haruka grinned a little. "I guess you didn't notice me because of Ranma."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Akane said, trying to compose herself. The attempt failed, as Haruka could see a few tears leak from the other girl's eyes, witness of her distress.

"You really did love him, didn't you?" she asked, shaking her head in wonder.

"No! I mean… I… It isn't any of your business," Akane sputtered. "Why are you here, anyways?"

"Well, Ranma wanted to see if you were okay…" Haruka started, before being interrupted.

"So the idiot sent someone else?" Akane said, sniffing.

"Your father and Mr. Saotome attacked him before he could come himself," Haruka shot back, her voice starting to get annoyed.

"Oh," Akane sighed. "There I go again. Jumping to conclusions." She laughed slightly bitterly. "When you first showed up, I even thought for a second that you and Ranma were a couple, even though you were a boy."

Haruka fidgeted nervously. "Well…" she said, not really wanting to say what was next, but also not wanting to lie to the girl in front of her, who seemed so sad right now. "We kinda are, and I'm not actually a guy."

"Oh." Akane looked down. "So that's why he didn't come back here. He found another person with a curse to be with."

"Huh?" Haruka asked, blinking rapidly. "I don't have a curse, I just dress like a guy."

Akane blushed, then slumped to the grass. "I guess I'm completely wrong today," she mumbled, looking down at the grass.

This was odd. When Ranma had described Akane, he'd said that she was really energetic, and kind of argumentative. This girl seemed completely different, as if all of her drive had been lost and she didn't know what to do with herself.

Sitting down on the grass next to Akane, she picked up a small rock of her own, about half the size of her hand, and threw it overhand into the canal. It was no use to pressure her right now, so she'd have to wait for her to continue.

"So, how do you deal with it?" Akane asked, out of the blue after a few minutes.

"Deal with what?" Haruka asked, surprised.

"You know," Akane said, looking uncomfortable. "All the weirdness, the curse, everything," she sighed.

Haruka shrugged. "The weirdness is a bit to get used to, but it's not that bad." She leaned back. "Besides, it would probably get pretty boring without it, I guess. As for the curse…" She laughed. "I sort of started hitting on Ranma when I thought he was a girl."

"What?" Akane asked, shooting up from her laying position. "So you're a…"

"Lesbian, though for Ranma it's… confusing," Haruka answered. Seeing Akane starting to look uncomfortable, she sighed. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hit on you or something." She almost laughed when Akane looked a little more relaxed. "Though you are pretty cute." She did start laughing at the reaction that got.

Akane glared at her for a moment, then started laughing herself. She was still upset, certainly. That would probably not change in the near future, but it seemed slightly distanced, somehow.

"Did Ranma tell you anything about me?" she finally asked, wanting to steer away from that topic.

"The usual... Everything that happened, although I suspect he tried not to paint you as mean-spirited." Seeing Akane blush, she remembered last night. "By the way, any idea why Ranma is scared of intimacies? He told me he got hit pretty often because of incidents..."

"Oh, goodness..." Akane tried to hide her face in her hands, a clear sign of guilt.

Haruka now pressed, seeing that there was more behind that. "It has something to do with you, right?"

Akane didn't dare to look to Haruka, in retrospect feeling ashamed of how she'd treated Ranma. "The revelation of his curse to me went very bad... At that time a moron named Kuno caused me to have a huge dislike of boys -and no I'm still straight- when it happened. I opened the door to the furo, only to see a naked boy stepping out of the water. And there I stood, as naked as a jaybird."

"Oh dear..." Haruka could see that this obviously was a bad first impression and she couldn't fault Akane for being riled up after having to endure Kuno's idiocy for a prolonged time.

Akane shook her head. "Something broke that day and never healed. I became extremely jealous whenever another girl, especially Shampoo, came too cose to Ranma and yet didn't want him close to me as well... You can guess the rest..."

Haruka felt that it would be mean to press anymore about the issue. The girl abviously now regretted her past decisions, but couldn't change anything about it. She wouldn't dare to dig any deeper. Ranma was better suited to make peace with her.

"Ohohohohoho!"

"What the hell was that?" Haruka yelled as the sound of maniacal laughter echoed across the canal.

"Oh no, Kodachi," Akane groaned, slapping a hand to her cheek. Quickly, she regained her feet and looked around to see the insane gymnast standing on the top of the sloping wall that lead down to the shore. "What do you want, Kodachi?" she asked, falling into a fighting stance again.

"Sasuke, my loyal ninja, has informed me that Ranma-sama has finally returned to Nerima, and I intend to go and sweep him off of his feet," Kodachi said, melodramatically.

"So why'd you come and bug me?" Akane asked.

"Because, Akane Dear," Kodachi said, distain dripping from the last two words, "I know that you would naturally interfere. It is time to neutralize that opposition!"

Within seconds the black-haired girl had whipped out a ribbon, sending black rose peddles fluttering around the area. While the two were talking, Haruka had been going over what little Ranma had told her about Kodachi without shuddering. About all she knew was that she was a martial arts gymnast, and that she liked to use underhanded tricks like poisons. Ah yes, and that she was pretty much insane.

As the black rose dove at the youngest Tendo girl, Haruka circled to the side, waiting for an opening. Unfortunately, when she got one about six minutes later, it was because Kodachi had managed to catch Akane in a cloud of some sort of powder that had stopped her from moving.

"Now, Miss Tendo, prepare to die so that my Ranma-Sama shall be by my side always!" Kodachi yelled, swinging a spiked gymnastic club down at Akane's head.

The youngest Tendo, unable to move in order to dodge, closed her eyes in expectation of great pain. A loud crack was heard, but she felt nothing. Tentatively opening her eyes, she saw Kodachi on her back several feet away and Haruka's leg raised in a high kick. The spiked club was nowhere to be seen, though she heard a distant splash several seconds later.

"You… foul… interloper!" Kodachi snapped as she forced herself to her feet, glairing at Haruka. "How DARE you interrupt my final victory over that witch Tendo?" She didn't wait for Haruka to answer, as she whipped out a ribbon and began swinging.

Haruka made a pretty good fight of it. Kodachi was a little less skilled than Kuno, but unfortunately she was also much more insane, and not as easily distracted. It took some time, but eventually the black rose caught Haruka's arm with her ribbon. Tugging quickly, she heard a satisfying snap as something in the arm gave.

Haruka screamed in pain, clutching her right arm to her chest, and Kodachi took her advantage while Akane desperately tried to shake off the effects of the paralysis powder she'd been hit with.

Haruka landed next to the water from Kodachi's next strike, dazed. Desperately, she tried to think of something that could save her life. That was when something quite strange happened.

Kodachi stepped back away as a yellow glow seemed to form in the air in front of Haruka, expecting a chi blast. Haruka herself just stared in wonder as a small gold-colored stick seemed to form in midair out of a flash of light. She wasn't sure what was going on, but something deep inside of her called out for her to take the object. Reaching out with her remaining good arm, she grasped the pen-like object, holding it up in front of her eyes. It had a star on the top, with a small circle inscribed inside of it. Atop the circle was a stylised captial H, connected to it with a line trough the middle of the letter.

"What the hell?" she murmured, before some strange words seemed to pop into her mind.

Kodachi had taken the time that Haruka was spending examining the stick to regain her initiative after no chi blast had come, and was charging at the blonde again when she held up the transformation pen and called "Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!"

Energy formed around Haruka's body as she was forced to her feet. The energy was bright yellow-gold, and swirled around the newly transforming Senshi for a brief instant before coalescing into her Uniform. Kodachi had actually been blown back by a wind that emanated from Haruka's body for a brief moment during the process.

"What… what is this?" the black haired girl demanded, gaping.

Uranus shrugged. "Not sure." She flexed her right arm. It twinged in pain, but would actually respond, and the pain wasn't that bad. Also, she could feel a strange power filling her entire body. She felt stronger… a LOT stronger. "But I think I like it."

Kodachi was about to respond, when the newly created Senshi moved, landing a hard punch into her stomach. It wasn't as strong as one of Ryoga or Ranma's usual efforts, but easily topped Akane's, at least when she wasn't powered up by anger chi. All of the air rushed out of the leotard-clad girl's body, as she flew back several feet.

"How DARE you!" the girl screeched, after regaining her breath.

"Leave, now!" Uranus snapped.

Kodachi didn't listen, charging for Akane rather than Uranus this time. Instinctively, the blonde found herself bringing a hand down hard onto the ground. "World Shaking!" she bellowed, and a ball of yellow energy raced towards Kodachi close to the ground, slamming into the Gymnast. The effect pretty much resulted in an explosion.

The Senshi's eyes widened, partially in amazement and partially in horror. "Damn, please tell me I didn't kill her or something," she breathed, rushing over to the tattered and burnt form of Kodachi. She sighed in relief as she saw her chest rising and falling, before turning back to check on Akane.

"You Okay, Akane-san?" she asked, kneeling next to the paralyzed girl.

"Haruka-san, is that you?" Akane gasped, her eyes as wide as they could go. "You… you're a Sailor Senshi?"

"Huh?" Uranus asked, before finally noticing the uniform she was wearing. The battle, and the sensation of power she now felt, had blocked almost everything else from her notice for a short time. "Ack!" She yelped, as she looked down at the short blue skirt, yellow bow and white leotard. "How did I get into this getup?"

What she was currently wearing went way beyond feminine. It was plain obscene. Right at this moment she knew two things. First, she'd never again tease Ranma for wearing feminine clothes when being a girl. Second, she'd never again complain about wearing feminine clothes herself -not after this.

Akane just tried to shrug, but found that she couldn't. Luckily, her head could move and she could talk, which was more than you usually got from Kodachi's paralysis powders. "You transformed when you held that yellow pen thing up," she answered. "Didn't you know that was going to happen?"

"No." Uranus answered, honestly, praying to all gods that Akane wouldn't tell anyone, before realizing that Akane still couldn't move. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," the girl responded. "Ranma says that this stuff usually wears off after a couple of hours, but… could you carry me back to the Dojo? I think my bed will be more comfortable than the ground until it wears off."

Uranus nodded, before picking the other girl up in her arms. She was really surprised how easy it was to do, but guessed that the Senshi outfit amplified strength considerably.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	31. Chapter 31

Notes: By the time of this chapter, all the previous chapters have been treated by Tribun with the goal to eliminate grammatical errors, improve the formatting and to streamline several parts to mesh better with story progression. This also involves some major additions. In Chapter 23, the scene with Professor Tomoe is longer and more story relevant now, while in Chapter 25, a completely new scene with Naru and Usagi for future developments was added.

Chapter 31: Reflections

The dark, misty confines of the plane of existence that the Gates of Time inhabited echoed with a rather unusual sound. It wasn't a particularly loud one, however, the total silence of the chamber made it quite evident. This sound was that of Sailor Pluto, slumped against the side of the time gates, muttering under her breath.

The Time Senshi had known that the time stream was out of her control for a very long time, but had thought that she could plan ahead, using other time lines as guides. The problem with this plan had always been evident, that half of the universes that she could see -which wasn't nearly a fraction of the total mass in the infinity of the multiverse- didn't have Senshi in them at all, and those that did had annoyingly chaotic spots that she couldn't peer through around many of their most important areas.

Even so, most of them had remained un-exploded, so she figured that they weren't dealing with what she currently was. That being the possible re-awakening of Sailor Saturn.

This blew the threat of the extra-dimensional being that she was relatively sure was preparing to invade out of the water. She would have to try and plan for the eventuality of finding and getting rid of the person who was going to awaken as Saturn, though the thought sickened her. Of course this was not Saturn's fault, Setsuna felt that Saturn propably was a very kind girl. It was the fear that someone could reach her first, before the Senshi could find her and ensure she'd never use her powers for dark purposes, which was driving her.

Granted, actually having Saturn on their side would be a huge advantage, but the presence of a Saturn also was a danger, even in case she should die a violent death. When the Dark Kingdom had murdered the last Saturn on the moon Titan in a first strike to eliminate their most dangerous foe, the poor woman had sterilized the whole moon in the blind panic of her dying moments.

Question was also, if Saturn could awaken at all. The Silence Glaive had vanished after the elder Saturn's death and it was needed for her transformation, like Pluto needed her time staff. She speculated that once someone would make the new Saturn aware of her powers, she could call it to herself like she could call her staff.

The last Saturn had been a dear friend, who, with her powers of death and rebirth and the following social isolation, had understood Setsuna's own burden all too well. She felt that she'd feel like a horrible person, if being forced to harm her re-incarnated friend.

Her thoughts stopped dead as she felt a resonant ripple in the time stream. Something important had happened.

Dragging herself up from the mumbling heap that had been leaning against the side of the gates she guarded, the 'mistress of the time gates' walked in front of them and gazed in, willing them to focus on what had caused the disturbance. Once the ripples faded from the view, she sighed and shook her head at what she saw there.

At this point, she got the distinct impression that planning based on information from other timelines wouldn't help one bit. Granted, Uranus had only awoken one day ahead of time, but the circumstances were vastly different. This new thing however had come completely out of left field. Shaking her head, the Time Senshi closed the gates and willed herself into her bedroom. Disengaging the transformation, she fell onto her bed.

"Sleep first. I'll tell them once they are back," she decided, drifting off to sleep.

-CM-

Ranma glared down at the unconscious forms of two old fools for a second, before brushing his hands off on his black Chinese pants. Turning, he winced as he saw Nabiki Tendo looking at him steadily. He quickly checked, but realized that, aside from a Shogi that had been knocked off of its track, he hadn't done all that much damage. That had been mostly because he'd gotten Mr. Tendo early with a quick strike to the jaw and Genma was too badly injured to really cut loose. Distantly, he wondered how that had happened before a metaphorical coin dropped in his mind.

"Akane!" he realized, headed for the door.

"Stop right there, Ranma," came Nabiki's voice, causing the pigtailed martial artist to come to a screeching halt.

"Nabiki?" he asked, looking back at the middle Tendo in surprise.

"Is that person who went after Akane trustworthy?" Nabiki asked, looking at him levelly. She normally wouldn't trust Ranma's opinion of people, but it seemed that he knew the girl well.

"What do you mean, Nabiki?" Ranma asked, confused. "Haruka's not going to hurt Akane or anything, if that's what you mean, but I should really go check on her," he started for the door again, only to be stopped by Nabiki's upraised hand.

"I think, at least until she calms down a little, you are the last thing Akane needs to see, and I have something to talk to you about in the meantime." She explained, starting to walk towards the stairs to the second floor. Ranma looked confused for a moment, before realizing that anything Nabiki wanted to talk to him about would probably be best discussed away from the fathers, even if they were unconscious.

-CM-

"Okay, what is it, Nabiki?" Ranma asked, as the brown haired girl's bedroom door closed behind the two. He looked at her for a few moments, before she broke the silence.

"Look, I know we haven't been treating you well for the past few years. Now, tell me why did you come back?" she finally said.

Ranma squirmed a little bit, "uhh...ummm", he stuttered out in typical Ranma-manner.

"Oh spit it out, Saotome," said an irate Nabiki who glowered at him, using his old name as a threat. "I will find out sooner and later, might as well save me the trouble to squeeze the information out of you."

Nabiki sighed exasperatedly when this still didn't weald a result and looked past Ranma as if formulating something in her mind, "Tell you what, I will promise not to sell any information you gave me while we are in this room."

"Iamheretobreakoffmyengagement," Ranma blabbered out, then tensed up as if waiting to be hit.

Nabiki blinked, then bolted to the restroom and dunked her head into a basin of cold water and then shook her head to get out the excess water. She grabbed a towel and dried up her hair. After she had calmed down from these shocking news, she walked back to her room in a collected manor and carefully shut her door again.

"I must be imagining things, because I just heard you are here to break off your engagements?" her voice became an uncertain squeal towards the end.

To which Ranma simply nodded, not trusting his own voice.

Completely ignoring Ranma, she broke out her ledger and a calculator. The mercenary girl started to tally up numbers by punching numbers into a calculator from her ledger. She had a concerned glint in her eyes as she pushed the numbers in. Her eyes became wider and wider as she flipped closer and closer towards the end of the ledger. When she reached the end, her hands were shaking uncontrollably to close the ledger.

Ranma leaned over and saw the number on the calculator, which had a total of close to fifteen digits without a decimal, then he looked at the title of the ledger, which read: 'Ranma Fiancee Pool'.

Nabiki finally broke out of her money trance but her hands were still shaking, "So, when are you planning to break it to your other fiancees?"

Ranma shrugged and said, "Which fiancees? Ukyo officially gave up on trying to get me, Shampoo as far as the old Ghoul knows is away on a wild goose chase and I renounced her, and Kodachi never had a claim. It's only Akane who I have to deal with."

Nabiki really wondered how Ranma had managed to get himself out of this mess in the first place. "What exactly would be the reason to suddenly come back and break off the engagement officially?" asked Nabiki as she slowly put away her ledger.

Ranma sighed and sat down on her bed before answering, "I want to marry Haruka. I actually proposed to her," a happy smile broke out on Ranma's face.

Nabiki broke out another ledger and started to compile another set of numbers. The glint in her eyes was bordering on crazy when she finished tally up the last ledger, but this time the craziness was almost on par with Kuno. Ranma shuddered at the thought.

"Don't even think about it... Haruka's dear to me and I'm not above doing mean things to protect her," Ranma warned her, letting his aura show.

That shook her right out of it and seeing Ranma this dead-serious, she felt that maybe it would be a bad idea to cross him.

-CM-

Ranma was worried some minutes later. His conversation with Nabiki had taken a while and he was kicking himself for not just ignoring the girl and running to find Akane immediately.

As he turned the corner that lead to the canal, which had been the second place he'd gone to check, he saw something that made him blink several times. Akane was there, being carried up the hill to the street by a Sailor Senshi in full costume. "Hey, Akane!" he called, drawing the attention of both of them.

As the blonde Senshi noticed him, she began to head towards him as quickly as possible. Ranma felt that looking from the outside, these things were even worse. Granted, they were comfortable to wear, but he'd actually even feel better wearing one of his girl swimsuits.

"Are you alright?" he asked, as the two came into easy talking range.

"I'm fine, Ranma," Akane said, then winced. "Well, I'll be fine as soon as Kodachi's paralysis gas wears off."

"Kodachi?" Ranma asked, looking around worriedly.

"It's alright, Haruka-san got rid of her." Akane continued.

At the moment she was too annoyed and amazed to be sad about seeing Ranma again. Thank all goodness that that the gas only paralysed her from moving and not affected other muscles. She'd have died from embarrassment if she'd have wet herself and Ranma would see her like that.

"Haruka? Where is she?" Ranma asked, still looking around, now concerned and confused. He this strnage feeling, that she was close.

"I'm right here, don't you recognize me?" Uranus asked, annoyed. She knew that she looked different in this ridiculous sailor suit, and she didn't really want to be seen by many people in it, but Ranma pretending that he didn't notice her was a bit much.

Ranma's head immediately snapped around, looking at Uranus. "You're…" he stuttered, his eyes widening, and then immediately did a quick chi scan.

"Haruka," Uranus said, slowly, wondering what Ranma's problem was. She hoped he was not becoming like Kuno.

Ranma gaped for a few more moments, before shaking his head in disbelief. He could not stop himself to look Haruka once over in her tiny yellow skirt that did nothing but accentuate her long luscious legs and the firm support the body armour provided that made her breast a little bit bigger than usual. His body couldn't stop itself to react to Haruka's current state of attire, or lack thereof.

Stopping that line of thinking almost immediately when he remembered that Akane was still right next to him, he decided that this was a bad place to deal with this. "I'm going have to talk to ya about something later," he muttered somewhat huskily, eliciting a raised eyebrow from both Akane and Uranus, and a small lecherous grin from the blond girl. "Let's get back to Akane's place and don't tell anyone else you are Haruka."

"I think only Ryouga would be fooled by that disguise," Akane said dubiously, as she looked up to Haruka's face, its only adornment being the gold tiara.

"The Senshi use disguise magic to make sure people don't know their identities," Ranma explained. After saying this, he immediately felt like kicking himself for letting something like that slip in front of Akane.

Instantly, the inevitable question came. "How do you know that?" Akane asked, curiously.

"I met a few of the Senshi in Minato," Ranma explained, lamely, before turning back to the Tendo compound. At least it wasn't a lie. "C'mon, let's get back to Akane's place."

Uranus nodded, though Akane's eyes narrowed. The Senshi was obviously still a little too shocked to figure out that anything was wrong, but she wasn't sure whether he was lying or aroused. His baggy pants hid any kind of evidence quite well, but he walked a little strange.

The group proceeded in a nervous silence until about a block away from the Tendo place, where Uranus stopped dead. "I just thought of something," she said. "I don't think it would be a good idea for a Sailor Senshi to come walking into Akane's family's house."

Akane laughed. "A lot weirder things have happened," she said, but then she frowned. "Though I bet Nabiki would probably guess your identity pretty fast if you came back with us, magic protection or not."

"Damn! I wish I knew how to get out of this thing," Uranus groaned, looking down at her uniform. Annoyed, she tapped the crystal broach in the middle of the bow on her chest with her right hand, whose arm was supporting Akane's legs. Abruptly, the Senshi outfit faded away, revealing her street clothes some moments later.

Ranma had to really force himself to not get aroused. He'd never actively witnessed a Senshi transformation or de-transformation and his own didn't count, as it was like a quick daze for him. Watching this from the outside was damn sexy. After the uniform had faded away, it took about three to four seconds before Haruka's clothes appeared, meaning that he'd gotten a full frontal view of Haruka in her birthday suit. Ranma even saw the proof that Haruka was a genuine blonde.

Boy, was that a view...

Unfortunately, without the outfit, Haruka's ability to carry Akane's entire dead weight vanished as well, and the two girls fell in a mass of tangled limbs.

"Ouch..." the blonde mumbled, from where Akane was laying on her face. Ranma immediately reached down, scooping the youngest Tendo daughter into his arms and allowing Haruka to regain her feet.

For a moment, Akane let herself believe that things were back to the way they had been before Ranma had left. Something stupid had just happened, and he had swooped in to rescue her. Oddly, her usual reaction of struggling to get released didn't even come to mind, even if she could have moved.

"Well, I guess I know how to transform back," Haruka commented, looking at Akane a little worriedly. That expression on her face was a little worrying, though Ranma didn't seem to notice. His own expression was...interesting.

-CM-

Nabiki's eyebrows shot up as Ranma and Haruka entered the house, Akane held securely in Ranma's arms. Her father had woken up and was sitting in one corner of the room nursing his wounds, but quickly perked up as he saw them.

"Ranma has come back to my Akane!" he yelled, joyfully.

Ranma and Akane both opened their mouths to deny this, when they were both shocked by Nabiki's response. "Oh just shut up, daddy," the middle daughter growled. "What happened to you, Akane?"

Akane grimaced. "Kodachi attacked. She didn't do much damage before…" she trailed off.

"Before what?" Nabiki asked.

"Before Haruka and I showed up," Ranma supplied.

Nabiki knew that there was something more to the events, but now wasn't the time to worry about that. "Can you take Akane up to her room, Ranma?"

"Yeah..." the pigtailed boy said, heading for the stairs.

After the two had disappeared upstairs, Nabiki flopped down on a cushion next to the dining table. "You trust Ranma an awful lot, letting him go up there with Akane and all," she said, impressed that Haruka didn't seem bothered by what her own sister would have been flipping her lid over.

Haruka just shrugged. "Is there any reason to be?" she asked. "She's his old girlfriend, and yeah, I think they still probably like each other a little, but if Ranma actually wants to go back to Akane rather than staying with me," she shrugged, though Nabiki could detect more than a little regret in her eyes. "We've just been dating." She didn't mention the engagement, since it seemed that being engaged to Ranma was a rather common occurrence in this area. Of course, she forgot to factor in that he'd actually asked her.

"Oh?" Nabiki said, surprised that this girl did not immediately tried to lay claim on Ranma like his other fiancés. "Though you are lying through your teeth about it not bothering you." Seeing Haruka twitch, she chuckled a bit, though she honestly couldn't see Ranma and Akane getting back together either. "Want to play some Go to pass the time?"

-CM-

Kicking open Akane's door, which had apparently been left ajar at some point earlier, Ranma set her down on the bed and took a chair next to her. "Can you move anything other than your head or neck?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting feeling back in my fingers." Akane replied, before the two fell silent. Ranma just sat there, watching and unsure of what to say, and she returned his look. He was the first one to break, as his eyes turned to her window, staring out into the neighborhood that had been his home for longer than anywhere else that he could remember.

"Ranma?" Akane asked, a few seconds later.

"Yeah?" The boy responded.

"Why did you go?" the girl said, asking one question that had been bothering her for almost the entire time that Ranma had been gone. "I mean, I know you left after asking me about your curse, but that couldn't have been the only reason you just.. left."

Ranma sighed, reluctantly returning his eyes to his former fiancée. "Nah, that wasn't why I left..." he said. "No matter what you'd said to that, I would have left Nerima."

"But…" Akane started, her eyes widening.

"I would have left, but I asked ya that question to see if you wanted to come with me."

Ranma's statement hit Akane hard, but it also kind of made her angry. "What kind of question was that to ask if you were trying to see if I wanted to come with you, Baka?" she demanded, wanting to hit Ranma, if only her arms could do more than twitch.

Ranma rubbed at his temples. He'd known that talking to Akane again would be hard, and explaining this as the first step wasn't his idea of fun. "Akane, the curse is, honestly, one of the more normal things about my life," he laughed a little, then shook it off. "I mean, coupled with having people out for my blood, fighting demons and such, and having to move around on the road for however long it took for me to find a place to live, turning into a girl with cold water is minor, ya know? I just…" He stopped.

"You just what, Ranma?" Akane snapped.

"I just saw your reaction to that, and I figured that you wouldn't be happy with the kind of life you'd get if you left with me," Ranma explained, his head down.

Akane wanted to retort with something immediately, but it caught in her throat. Was she supposed to say that she could have taken it, or denied that she would ever want to? Even through all of the sadness of living here after Ranma had left, there had still been a determined portion of her mind that screamed that she did NOT love that jerk, and that she was glad that he and his insanity were gone. Actually, she had been glad that the insanity had left in general, even while missing the boy himself.

"I… I guess it never would have worked with us, would it?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"I dunno..." Ranma said, shaking his head sadly. "If things had turned out different, if all the crazy stuff didn't happen around here, maybe it could worked."

Akane nodded slightly, her eyes glimmering with tears that she refused to let go. "So, why did you come here again? I mean you knew that our fathers would jump on you the second you walked in, so I doubt it was for a visit," she said, trying to change the subject.

Ranma sighed. "I am here to officially break off the Tendo engagement, so I can marry Haruka," he said somewhat despondently.

Akane shot up sluggishly, realizing that her body was responding to her again somewhat as she looked at the boy sitting on her desk chair in astonishment. "You what?"

Gathering his wandering mind, Ranma explained "I want to marry Haruka, so I want to officially end this engagement. It's the least I could do."

"But what about your honor?" Akane asked, confused. "Wasn't that one of the main reasons why you did not end all the other engagements outright, before?"

"Well," Ranma began, "I am no longer a Saotome. I haven't been a Saotome since the day I left here, so any Saotome honor contracts no longer applies to me anymore."

"But," Akane wanted to interrupt, Ranma raised his hand to stop her from interrupting.

"During the time I was Ronin, I lived in a rundown apartment and worked heavy construction. Sure, the pay wasn't that great, but for once I felt free. Free from any obligations, free from arranged marriages, and free from any family honor. I finally understood that there is no way for me to make everyone happy. It was during that time that I met Haruka."

Ranma sighed somewhat wistfully. Thinking he owed Akane an explanation as to why this sudden need to break the engagement, Ranma then launched into a somewhat detailed explanation of the past few months, leaving out him being a Sailor Senshi.

-CM-

Haruka studied her opponent carefully, before reaching out onto the grid-like game board and slapping her white stone down on an intersection. As her opponent considered her move, they both heard the sound of people coming down the stairs. Looking up, Haruka saw that they were Ranma and Akane. Ranma looked relieved, and Akane's expression was hard to read. The most noticeable feature of the youngest Tendo was that she had changed out of her blue school dress into a yellow martial arts Gi.

Haruka's opponent just smiled ever-so slightly, placing her black stone on the board and mumbling "Just as I planned."

The blonde wasn't sure what she was talking about, since she actually had a slight advantage on the board at the moment, until Akane spoke up. "Where's Dad?"

"He's in the first floor guest room, taking care of Mr. Saotome," Nabiki answered. "Seems Ranma hit the old panda a bit too hard."

Akane nodded and headed for the guest room. Ranma and Nabiki followed, so Haruka just shrugged and joined them.

As the blue-black haired girl entered the room, Soun Tendo was laying a cold compress on his best friend's forehead. "Akane-chan, what is it?" He asked, not seeing the crowd behind her. However, there was an added person kneeling right next to Soun, Happosai.

"Father." Akane started, surprising the older man with her formality. "I want you to start training me in the full Tendo School of anything goes martial arts."

Soun just stood there, stunned for several seconds. "You… you what?" He asked, one hand clenching around the cloth that was still held there.

"You heard me, father. Will you accept me as your student again?" Akane asked, resolutely. There were butterflies fluttering around inside of her stomach, however her gaze was unwavering.

However, before any words can be uttered from Soun's mouth. Happosai stood to his full height from his kneeling position and started to pace around Akane slowly, backing up every now and then assessing the youngest Tendo. He nodded a few times as he circled around Akane.

Finally, He stopped, "I see..." He paused a little bit in his pacing before continuing speaking, "you want the full side of the Tendo side, well the truth is, the school was arbitrarily split up into two schools, the Saotome dealt with the Aerial and light chi manipulation, and you, 'Sky Way' dealt with the Ground and heavy chi manipulation. It was in part why you had such easy access to your anger chi."

"As any full practitioner of the Anything Goes School must do, you must go on at least one training journey in which you must find out whether being a master of the school is something you really wants. This job falls under the current master of the arbitrary Tendo school." Happosai then leveled a glare at Soun. "After this journey, you will be assessed then with a no move hold back spar with me. If I think you are worthy, then I will allow you to be taught the full Anything Goes School."

"I don't want to be a master, I just want the training to finish what Daddy had started," Akane countered, with a little bit of whine at the end.

Happosai sighed. "Given the current state of the school being there are no active students..." he stopped to level a glare at the now cowering Genma and Soun, " your knowledge of the Anything Goes greatly surpass that of a student, the next step is for mastership of the Anything Goes School. You can no longer be a student anymore, since you know too much to be one. Your only options are either stay a practitioner of Anything Goes, or start your mastership journey."

-CM-

About ten minutes later, Ranma was standing on the sidewalk outside of the Tendo compound's front gates, Haruka standing to one side. Nabiki was still inside the house, but Akane had walked with them to the door.

"Goodbye, Ranma," the youngest Tendo said, slightly sadly.

"Bye, Akane," Ranma replied. "So what are you going to do now? Are you going to take that training journey?" he commented, worriedly.

"I don't know. To be honest, I want to be an actress, and martial art is just a hobby of sorts," the girl answered, before surprising Ranma and giving him a hug.

"Ack!" the boy yelled, and Haruka's eye gave a visible twitch. "Akane, what are you doing?" he demanded.

"Relax..." Akane responded. "I'm just saying goodbye to a friend."

Ranma wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Goodbye Haruka-san, and thanks for your help today," Akane said, turning to the blonde haired crossdresser. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about what happened during your fight with Kodachi," she continued, in a whisper.

Haruka simply nodded, before the two got into her car. As the vehicle made its way down the street and out of the district, both of them had a lot on their minds. For Ranma, it was mostly about wondering what Akane's decision would be and what the old goat would have in store for him, since Happosai was oddly silent about that.

Haruka's thoughts were focused elsewhere, however, mostly pertaining to a strange golden stick and the transformation it had caused in her during the fight with Kodachi.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Secrets? Who needs 'em!

Akane Tendo watched as the small yellow sports car turned the corner and vanished into the narrow streets of this part of Nerima, before turning back to the Tendo compound. She took a deep breath, before walking through the front gates and up to the steps. She have a lot on her mind right now. She needed to mull the proposal that Happosai gave her.

Right now, she did not have a clue what to do. She had always thought that she would marry Ranma eventually and they would run the dojo together. She had always resented that fact, because she wanted to be an actress, not train students. Now that she actually did have a choice between the two, she did not know what to do.

She had to admit -at least to herself- that these past few months without Ranma had been somewhat peaceful minus the usual hentai squad and Kuno every morning. Even that became a routine that she did not mind that much anymore. It had actually stopped altogether some time ago and she didn't even want to know, why. No one had seen Kuno ever since and without him, the others didn't bother.

No kidnappings, no need to feel insecure about her breast size or lack of housekeeping skills -after all with Kasumi gone all of them were equally bad in the latter issue. More importantly, once again she's the center of attention in Furinkan High with the weirdness having died down. Even the principal had become bored and left again to who knows where.

Yet this strangely enough wasn't as great as she had thought it would be.

-CM-

The ride home from Nerima was quiet and Haruka kept her eyes on the road as best she could. What had happened today had overshadowed even what had been coming into her life since she'd left her home and met Ranma. Her mind was conflicted about it.

Unlike the martial artist, she didn't particularly object to having her power increased by a magical talisman, especially since it had resulted in her being able to save that Tendo girl, but the Senshi uniform had been beyond embarrassing and went completely against her normal tastes in clothing. It bordered on being hentai-stuff.

Also, Ranma had seemed to know far too much about what had happened to her. Distantly, some part of her mind set up a flag that it was very odd that Ranma would know about the Senshi's disguise ability, but she dismissed it since not much about Ranma wasn't strange, and turned the small car smoothly onto one of the freeways that ran between Tokyo's major districts.

When the vehicle was safely on the highway, the blonde took her attention off of the road for long enough to glance over at her passenger. Ranma was just gazing out the window. Having gone and actually resolved his situation with Akane had apparently done him a world of good. She was about to turn back to the road, when Ranma's eyes met hers and the two caught for a moment.

He looked distinctly startled, but she simply smirked amusedly and turned away. She took her right hand off the manual shift and rested her hand on his thigh, squeezing it gently.

-CM-

Ami stood outside of Ucchan's Okonomiyaki, looking into the window as the young waiter dashed around bringing food to the tables. Rei had been right, and had told her where to find Konatsu. Usagi had asked her to try and find out as much a she could about the odd goings on surrounding her cram school, including Ranma and the new Senshi of neptune, and this was the first person she could think of to consult.

Taking a deep breath, the young Senshi entered the shop.

Inside, Ukyo Kuonji smiled as she flipped a cooking Okonomiyaki, catching it on her spatula. "Order's up!" she called, flinging the finished food into the air again and half-way across the restaurant. Konatsu immediately bounded into the air, catching the food on a plate he had been carrying, and sliding it onto the table in front of one of the restaurant's customers.

The middle-aged man clapped as the young Kimono clad waitress walked off towards the serving counter.

"It's good to have you back, Konatsu," Ukyo said smiling, as she slung the battle spatula she'd just used over her shoulder and into place on her back. She was wearing her usual Okonomiyaki seller's blue uniform, her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Thank you, Ukyo-san," Konatsu said, bowing his head.

Ukyo's smile got larger at that remark. The young waiter had returned to his usual garb when he'd gotten dressed this morning, however his formerly overly-respectful speech habits had noticeably toned themselves down, and she'd seen several more masculine outfits when she'd helped him move his things back into his room the night before. Seeing another hand in the back of the restaurant signaling for its order to be filled, she pointed and the male Kunoichi quickly nodded, bounding off to do his duty.

As Konatsu was half way across the room, the front door opened and a girl entered. She had short, blue-black hair similar to Akane Tendo's, and was wearing what looked like a junior high school uniform. The girl walked towards the counter, settling down there casually.

"Can I help you, sugar?" Ukyo asked, gliding over to her with a pleasant look on her face.

"A… Actually," the girl began, "I'm here to talk to Konatsu-kun."

Ukyo's eyebrows shot up at that statement, looking the girl over more carefully. She had a similar looking outfit to that the blonde that had been following her and Konatsu on their date had been wearing the day before. "You wouldn't happen to be Rei Hino, would you?" She hazarded, remembering that a girl by that name had sheltered Konatsu during his time away from the shop.

"No, my name is Ami Mizuno. Rei is one of my friends," the girl said, surprised. "Do you know her?"

"No, Konatsu just mentioned her. Hold on, I'll call him over," Ukyo answered, then signaled the Kimono clad waiter to return to the counter.

"What is wrong, Ukyo-san?" Konatsu asked, as he reached the counter. Seeing Ami, his eyes widened slightly. "Greetings, Mizuno-san."

"Hello, Konatsu." Ami said, looking between the young man and the Okonomiyaki chef. Deciding to be straight forward, she continued. "I came to ask you a few questions."

Konatsu frowned for a moment, and then looked to Ukyo for confirmation. The brown haired woman just looked back, shrugging. "I assume that you would like to talk in private, Mizuno-san?" Konatsu asked.

At Ami's nod, the two proceeded out of the main restaurant and into the Kunoichi's back room, leaving Ukyo rather bemused.

Ami was about to say something, when Konatsu silenced her and began looking around the room carefully. She was about to ask what was wrong, when he stopped his observation. Seeing her questioning look, he shrugged. "It is always a good idea to make sure you're unobserved," he explained, shortly.

Ami didn't know how to take that, looking at the ninja in astonishment before recomposing herself. "Um, right..." she said, before continuing. "I came here to ask you a few questions."

"What about?" Konatsu asked, openly curious. "You know that I won't answer any questions about Ukyo-sama."

"It's not about Ukyo," Ami responded, before slipping her mercury computer out of her pocket. She tapped on the display for a moment and then held it up. "Do you recognize this person?"

The ninja leaned in close to the screen, studying the image intently. It was a still frame of some sort of monster, though he doubted that it was what Ami was referring to. There was a short, red-haired girl in the corner of the frame, rolling away and apparently out of harm's way. He had no problem to recognise this one.

"Why do you need this information?" he asked, cautiously. He knew that Ranma had hurt Ukyo recently, but also that his mistress still cared for the boy and that Ranma had also helped to free him from his step-family.

Ami furtively looked around the room in a similar manor to how Konatsu had earlier, before responding. "It has to do with the Senshi," she said, seeing no point in lying. Konatsu had promised not to tell anyone about their group unless they threatened his mistress, and if he knew something, which it seemed like he did from his reaction, the trade-off may be worth it.

Konatsu studied the picture for a few more seconds, seemingly making a decision, before speaking up. "This is Ranma-san, in his cursed form."

Ami blinked. "What?" she asked, though she could vaguely remember Konatsu mentioning something about Ranma being cursed before Minako had gotten him to tell her his story and the meeting he'd taken part in had gotten derailed. As the Ninja told her what he knew about Jusenkyo and its curses, her eyes widened.

Now, this was unusual even for her.

-CM-

As Cologne and Happosai jumped from rooftop to rooftop back toward the Peking Duck, or as it is known now by its customers as the Duck Cafe, holding a huge bag each on their backs.

Cologne turned to her husband a bit miffed, since he did not tell her he had stashed away this many artifacts over his travels. When Happosai was taking care of his school, she was trying to locate his artifact stash. It was not until he told her how to find the artifacts, that she realized how shrewd her husband really was. All of his panties had a hidden pocket which he stashed one or two artifacts into. Nobody realized his panty raids was not so much for him to get energy back, but as much to find new storage places for the artifacts that he acquired. This entirely changes what he actually means when he says my pretties, whenever he rubbed his face against those panties. She shook her head in amusement as she once again looked over at her husband, now seeing him in a completely new light.

Cologne was a bit upset at herself that she had absolutely underestimated Happosai's intelligence. Thinking he was just an old martial art jock with his mind only singularly considering the opposite sex. No wonder that over the years they were not able to find any of the stolen artifacts that Happosai had taken during his revenge raid into the Amazonian vault after she'd thrown him out of her house. Even when they did detain him, they simply threw the panties aside as just another of Happosai's obsession.

-CM-

Haruka was startled out of a relaxed state as the car drifted through the outskirts of Minato when Ranma spoke up. "Could we stop here?" he asked, pointing to a vacant lot.

Haruka just shrugged, pulling the car to a stop by the side of the road and turning the engine off. She became curious and slightly worried as Ranma exited the car, walking into the lot, and quickly followed him. This beahviour was really unusual for him and she wondered what was on his mind.

"Ranma, what's wrong?" she asked, glancing around to see that the area they were standing in was deserted.

Ranma scuffed his feet nervously for a minute before sighing. "I would like you to hear me out before saying anything, alright?" he asked, softly.

Haruka looked at him oddly. "Of course I will. Ranma, what's wrong?" she asked, her nervousness growing.

"Look, I've been thinking. All my life, especially in Nerima, I tried keeping stuff away from people I cared about, thinking that it would save them from trouble. However, it usually came back and bit me in the end," Ranma explained, looking off and blushing a bit in memory of something. "With what happened today, I kinda figured I should tell ya somethin."

Haruka couldn't any keep it in longer. "Has it something to do with Akane?"

Ranma wondered for a moment, before realizing what Haruka meant. "What, no! There is only one girl I wanna be with, after all I went there to end things with her!"

"Thank goodness. For one moment I though..." Now Haruka felt quite stupid for thinking this after what she and Ranma had already shared. Now that this little fear was done with, they could cut to the chase. "Then… what is it?" Haruka asked, looking at him intently.

Ranma didn't quite know what to say, especially since he'd apparently blown what was supposed to be a gentle introduction, so he just shrugged and withdrew the Neptune transformation pen from his pocket. He let his Chi reach out for a few seconds, verifying that there was no one who could see either of them in the area, and then held the device up.

"Neptune planet power, make up!" he called.

Haruka gaped when all of a sudden a water column shot up around him, obscuring him from her eyes. When it vanished seconds later, it revealed the redhead in the blue and green sailor fuku.

Haruka just gaped for a second. "You…" she stuttered, her mouth opening and closing rapidly a few times. "You idiot!"

Neptune flinched, expecting a blow, but was surprised when the taller woman ran at her and hugged her tightly. "Wha?" she asked, irking as Haruka squeezed her. The pressure didn't actually affect her, especially since the Senshi power provided her a sort of external force-field for protection, but the action was completely unexpected.

It took Haruka a few seconds to recompose herself, before she pulled away. "I… You worried me that you could have hidden that you still carry a torch for your old girlfriend, while in reality it's this?"

Neptune walked over to her blonde haired companion, putting an arm on the taller girl's shoulder. "Haruka, I couldn't go back to Akane if I wanted to," she said, before walking in front of the blonde and tilting her head down to look into her eyes. "And I don't want to."

Haruka by now felt really stupid. She'd let this irrational fear grow to a ridiculous size and it now needed an outlet. However, before anything in that regard could be done, Ranma cupped Haruka's face and caressed her face softly. Haruka closed her eyes and leaned her head into Ranma's hand. Ranma then got on her tip toes and brought Haruka's head down to capture her lips in a fierce kiss, trying to prove something she could not explain well in words.

Haruka looked down into the red-head's bright blue eyes as she broke the kiss and couldn't help but smile as she saw the mixture of love and worry in them. "Thank you, Ranma," she breathed, drawing the smaller girl close again. "So, you're a Senshi too, huh?" she asked, after the two had been standing like that for a few minutes.

Neptune nodded. "Sailor Neptune," she confirmed. "And please don't call me Ranma like this. Like I said, the Senshi forms make it really hard for people to recognize us."

Haruka frowned as she looked Ranma over, taking the opportunity to slip her hands under the short skirt and squeeze Ranma's tight butt. Ranma let out a little groan of need when she felt Haruka's hands explore that part of her body. It felt different as a girl, but not bad.

"Other than the fact that you're really cute in that outfit, I can recognize you pretty well..." Haruka smirked, as her wondering hand went to Ranma's front, causing the redhead to glare at her for her comment. Well as much a glare as she can manage between moans of pleasure, the result was actually a smoky gaze.

"I think it only works if the other person doesn't know you're the Senshi," Neptune choked out. "Excuse me, time to turn back." As she forcibly broke herself away from Haruka's skillful hands, somewhat reluctantly.

Deciding that since she'd gotten a full frontal of Haruka earlier today, it would be only fair to return the favor, as embarrassing as it might be. She'd only de-transformed in someones's presence one time, and Pluto had been tactful enough to not blink an eye at her then-nudity. Also they'd have to get used to the sight if they were to fight together in the future.

Haruka gaped when the uniform faded away, leaving Ranma-chan completely exposed for some seconds. She'd guessed that Ranma was well-built as a girl, but this looked even better than she'd thought. There were even some normally well-hidden muscles on the otherwise feminine body, showing that all the physical activity started to have an effect. Haruka also couldn't help but to notice the proof that Ranma as a girl was indeed a natural redhead.

Settling her Chinese clothes onto her female form after they'd re-appeared, Ranma grumbled, her mind now clearer after the de-transformation. One of the problems with transforming from male to Senshi form was, that the clothes always got pretty badly wrinkled when she changed back. When noticing Haruka's appreciating looks, she smirked evilly.

"By the way, you looked pretty good in the uniform, too," she told her.

Haruka blushed and looked down. "That wasn't funny." She grumped.

"So what, you can admire me, but I can't return the favor?" Ranma asked, finding a weak spot in the blonde's armor. Since Haruka was usually the one who could jab her about her own social shortcomings, the payback was nice.

Haruka just grumbled more as they headed back to the car. As they settled in and she started the engine, she looked over at Ranma and asked a question. "So, what do we do?"

"Huh?" the shorter girl asked, looking back in confusion as she buckled her own seatbelt.

"Well, We're these Sailor Senshi, and we've got these magic powers and these stupid uniforms, so what do we do with them?" Haruka clarified, shifting the car into gear and proceeding to drive it down the street towards Setsuna's house.

Ranma shrugged. "We do what I've been doing with my martial arts whenever I got the chance even before becoming a Senshi. We protect the weak," she said, simply. "Or at least I do. I could understand if you don't want to do it."

Haruka snorted. "I don't really like the outfit, but if you're doing it and I can help, count me in," she said, adamantly.

Ranma sighed and rubbed her forehead. " Figures..." she muttered, sourly.

-CM-

As they entered the Meiou house, it was unsettlingly quiet and they got no reply. Looking at the shoe rack they saw Nodoka's footwear missing, so she probably was currently out of the house. However, Setsuna's were there, so she had to be home.

Right then they heard someone coming down the stairs and prepared to greet Setsuna.

However, what they saw coming down the stairs was not one Setsuna Meiou, but Sailor Pluto holding her time staff. Haruka looked down at Ranma's relaxed manner and shrugged, thinking that since Ranma did not feel they were in danger, she shouldn't worry about this new person.

So instead, Haruka let out a long whistle as she looked the green haired senshi up and down appreciating her tout body. This woman definitely was wearing the fuku well. Ranma jabbed Haruka in the ribs feeling a pang of jealousy coursing through her veins, since Haruka was checking someone else out.

"Welcome home" Sailor Pluto greeted them. She smirked in amusement at the exchange in front of her. "I believe some explanations are in order," she explained as she deactivated her transformation to become one Setsuna Meiou.

She couldn't help but to smile when seeing Ranma look away with a slight blush. Even as a girl, she could act like a gentleman.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Explanations and Family Trouble

The house was eerily quiet, not even a critter was making a sound.

This heavy silence was finally broken by the chime of the grandfather clock declaring that it was the full hour. Setsuna sat in front of Ranma and Haruka fully expecting a berating from Haruka -something she propably even deserved. Instead, they sat there expectantly waiting for her to start.

Over these past few months, she had started to see both Haruka and Ranma not as the teenagers that they were when they first came in, but as close friends. She cared about the opinions they held of her, and most of all she did not want to lose the trust she had earned over all this time.

All those centuries alone had put a damper on her relationship skills, true she may have kept in contact so she could amass a huge amount of money, but as the people's technology advanced it became harder just to come and go as she wished without causing lots of raised eyebrows. Also, someone turning up in the databanks that was over 100 but looked like 30 would be very suspicious.

It was one of the main reasons she had started her holding company. To create roots for herself, it was not hard to create identities on the fly. However, it was the repetition that annoyed her. She preferred to use her own identity as opposed to become someone else altogether and she had to make herself her own inheritor at least six times as a 'distant relative'.

Right now she's facing one of the greatest challenges she had ever faced, to maintain the trust of the people she began to consider as family. There was nothing she could do but put some faith in something she had no control over. This feeling was unnerving for her. For years she had thought being the Senshi of Time, she would not be surprised by anything. However, ever since the end of the Silver Millennium she'd had to learn the hard way that she was no longer in control of the situation anymore.

She sometimes felt that there was someone out there who jerked off over her troubles.

She looked from Ranma to Haruka, closed her eyes and then reopened them. Her usual unreadable countenance was now that of the man who walked out of the Socratic cave: curious and tentative of the unknown. Her entire body was extremely tensed but she could not do anything about it. So she decided to forge on with the explanation.

She let out a heavy sigh. "Let's start with who the Senshis are," Setsuna started in somewhat of a monotone to finally break the silence.

"The mantles of Senshi were created to form elite soldiers for the Moon Kingdom. These Mantles were created in two separate occasions, the first was created by the very first Queen of the Moon Kingdom. The Inners were meant to maintain peace and order within the kingdom. However, as the Moon Kingdom expanded, so did its enemies. As a result Queen Serenity was forced to create mantles for Outers. We were the first generation of Outers and when these mantles were created there were many protests because of the amount of powers granted to us from being able to tap into our planet's powers more readily than the Inners. The Inners at the time digressed, because it became a hereditary passing."

"But what does this have to do with us?" Ranma asked somewhat curious.

"Yeah, and why only girls? That sounds..." Haruka added.

Setsuna seemed to have anticipated the latter question. "Let's put it this way... Not only men can be sexist and the Queen was know for some really misandristic views. She shouldn't have bothered, the planetary spirits don't care for gender, and only thanks to re-incarnation are all current Senshi female. Once you start to pass away, the next generation no longer will be solely female."

Seeing Haruka barely containing a laugh, she could guess what she was thinking. "No, the magic is smart and sensible enough to give them something different than a sailor fuku... To think of it, if Ranma could avoid changing gender when transforming, he should..."

Seeing that they were getting off-track, Setsuna decided to get back on topic. "Anyway, our mantle was created to protect the Silver Millennium from outside attacks. We were made to be the first line of defense against any outside threats. Now an entity of immense power is on the move toward us. It is our duty to protect Earth, because Terrain technology isn't yet advanced enough to defeat this new enemy."

Ranma nodded and said one word: "Honor."

Haruka looked from Ranma to Setsuna and something just clicked in her mind. With a peeved look on her face she turned to Setsuna, "How long did you know that we're Senshi? And was this why you were helping us in the first place?"

"Haruka, I understand that you are angry at me for this deception, but it was something I needed to do to ensure that Earth would not be destroyed. The both of you becoming Senshi is crucial in saving the world as a whole," Setsuna answered in a down-trodden mood.

"The truth, the truth would have helped," Haruka insisted.

"Think about it, what would you have said before you have met Ranma, if I told you that magical girls exist and you are one of them?" Setsuna asked.

Haruka began to retort, but stopped herself, because she knew she would have laughed at the absurdity of the entire notion. "But still, you should not have lied to us, Setsuna!"

Ranma put a hand on Haruka's shoulder, "Think about it, Haruka. Setsuna did not have to sponsor you for your racing, she did not have to put up with us living here, hell, she could have completely ignored sending us to Mugen. She did not have to do any of those in order to get us to work for her. I would know. Remember what I told you about what my former fiancés did in order to get me to marry them?"

Haruka nodded, Ranma had told her the story. "Setsuna may very well be able to do just that in order to get us to work for her, but she didn't," Ranma finally finished with this tirade. Haruka let out a sigh of defeat, Ranma had effectively placated her anger. Setsuna at the same time let out a sigh of relief that she did not know she was holding.

The Time Senshi was glad to see some vestige of Sailor Neptune coming to the forefront in Ranma's personality, manifesting itself in him speaking flawlessly. Because of it, it had saved her a lot emotional pain. She honestly would not know how to react if both Haruka and Ranma would turn away from her because of this deception.

"Don't think I enjoyed lying to you. You as well will soon learn that doing so over a longer time will only give you grief," Setsuna added.

Setsuna knew that Ranma wouldn't be able to keep his secret from his mother for a longer time. He was simply too honest and after the disaster with 'Ranko' he propably wouldn't want to make the same error twice. She hoped Ranma would tell her on his own accord, as she'd seen how the Inners by now were suffering severe strain by keeping their secret from family and friends.

"What exactly is this threat?" asked Ranma, trying to get back to the matter of importance.

Setsuna threw Ranma a look of gratitude before continuing. "Pharaoh 90, an entity that had threatened the Moon Kingdom ever since it got started. He had always wanted to expand his control over the universe. His minions can only exist in an absolute desolate world. In other words a world on that we could not coexist."

"How exactly do we stop this Pharaoh 90?" asked Ranma

"The Queen at the time created a chalice, the Holy Grail, that is able to repel this entity away from our solar system... No, despite the name, it has nothing to do with THAT grail. The Grail protects our solar system from Pharaoh 90, now that the Moon Kingdom is gone. It is hidden and the only way of finding it is by assembling three artifacts, of which I have one right here," she said as she pulled out her garnet staff, pointing to the top where a red crystal orb rested.

"The other two are a mirror and a sword, items that rightfully should be in your possession. When all three items are assembled, the Grail should appear. Since the Grail is no longer in the Moon Kingdom's control, it can also be used to open a portal to speed up Pharaoh 90's travel toward Earth. You need to find these artifacts at all cost. If our enemies gain possession of them, the world as we know it would end."

Ranma tilted his head to the side, absorbing all of this information. His eyes flashed open as he remembered his previous conversation with Setsuna about that symbol he drew on the ground. "What about that symbol I drew for you the other day? When I told you of the dream I had of the end of the world?"

Haruka turned to Ranma with a questioningly gaze, to which Ranma just squeezed her hand reassuring her it was going to be alright.

"I started to have these weird dreams, about the world where everyone and everything turned to stone, nothing lived, nothing breathed, there wasn't even air around to make sounds. It was like everything was silent apart from a strange melody, then this weird symbol formed in the sky," he reached out for a pen and paper to draw it for Haruka.

"That..." Setsuna stopped and pointed at the symbol Ranma had drawn, "is the symbol of Saturn."

"Saturn?" Haruka asked, "How is that a bad thing, if she would be another Senshi?"

"The symbol of Saturn does not necessarily mean it is the Senshi of Saturn, it is also the symbol of Silence. It is the symbol which Pharaoh 90 uses as his banner. Back in the Moon Kingdom, Neptune and Mars had the gift of visions. You both can see somewhat foggily into the future, but since I have a much more reliable way of looking towards what is going to happen, the Queen did not put much research to understand your miraculous gifts," Setsuna explained.

Ranma filed away that he could see into the future. Since this had happened while he'd been male, it could propably be useful in the future. "How exactly do we find those two remaining artifacts?" Ranma then asked.

"Those artifacts are hidden within two people's heart crystals. These heart crystals are what gives us life and energy. The enemy has a way of extracting these heart crystals, and you have to examine these heart crystals in order to find the artifact within."

"What exactly would happen when we do find these heart crystals, Setsuna?" Ranma pressed. He'd seen what had happend to Kasumi when her crystal had been ripped out. He didn't want others to suffer this fate.

"My guess is, that you need to destroy it in order to extract the artifact from it," Setsuna said, leaving out what would follow.

"So in other words, we have to wait for our enemy to attack first, and then we do find it we are forfeiting two someone's life? No, no there must be another way" Ranma face paled.

Setsuna sighed and shook her head despondently."None that I know of. I know this is cruel and heartless and would make us no better than our enemies. If another way is found that avoids spilling innocent blood, I'll be the first to use it."

"So," Setsuna then tentatively added "will you two help find these artifacts?"

Thinking to their previous conversations earlier that day, Ranma and Haruka both nodded. "But don't think I like this one bit... We have to find another way as I won't sacrifice someone."

Needing to clear their heads, with this new information, Ranma and Haruka then exited the house for a walk. The situation now was really bad for them.

Setsuna looked after them, hoping that Ranma was right and they could avoid lowering themselves to the level of their enemies.

-CM-

The next day, Sunday, Ranma briefly looked back towards Setsuna's house as she and Haruka streaked down the street away from it on the blonde's motorcycle. Feeling the squirming of the passenger on the back, the blonde turned just enough to one side to allow one of her eyes to peer at the redhead through her helmet.

"You alright?" she called, raising her voice over the sound of the running engine.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ranma said, before shaking her head. She'd not admit that like her mother, she'd didn't feel all too well on a motorcycle. "You think Aunt Nodoka's going to be alright?"

Haruka sighed. She'd figured that this was what Ranma had been thinking about. Nodoka had been nervous all morning, even when talking to Setsuna and having tea earlier.

Unfortunately, she wasn't sure what to tell Ranma. She'd actually met Nodoka's parents once, when they were having a business meeting with her father in his living room. She hadn't realized it until she'd heard that the older woman's name was originally Nodoka Himura. The looks they had given Haruka when she'd walked into the room wearing a set of biking clothes by accident still made her shiver.

'Good luck, Nodoka-san...' she thought, as the bike made a turn onto a highway that let her open up the throttle a bit more than she was allowed to in a residential area.

Taking advantage of this, she increased speed rapidly and felt the gratifying sensation of Ranma clutching at her for dear life. Yep, exactly like her mother, Ranma wasn't all too keen on a ride on her bike, which was strange considering the other stuff she normally did.

After a wild ride, which had taken far less time than Ranma had felt it did, Haruka's bike decelerated to a stop in the parking lot of the track that she was supposed to race at today. It was at the outskirts of Tokyo, quite a distance from their home. Ranma hopped off the back, visibly annoyed.

"Did you have to pull it so close?" she grumbled, referring to an incident with a trailer truck near the entrance.

"What, did I scare you?" Haruka asked, smirking.

The redhead sputtered. "I wasn't scared, it was just a stupid risk," she announced, glaring at her girlfriend.

Haruka's smirk got wider, before she draped one arm over the shorter girl's shoulder. "C'mon, you were scared. Admit it," she prodded. Ranma just sniffed in irritation, trying to look as annoyed as possible. Unfortunately, that annoyance ended up just making her look cute, and the blonde leaned over, kissing her. Ranma melted into the kiss.

"Hey, I'm trying to be angry here!" Ranma complained, as their lips separated, though she now found herself smiling.

"Too bad..." Haruka said, before an announcement came over the PA system of the track, calling for her to report to the maintenance area with her bike.

-CM-

Ranma pumped her fist and cheered as Haruka took an easily measurable lead on the final lap. She hadn't been sure what the blonde was thinking before, since she'd kept close to the guy who was in second, but now she was out front and pulling across the finish line. Seeing this, the redhead stood and cheered louder.

She didn't know much about racing, but to see Haruka simply win a competition was already worth it. The crowd cheered when the winner was announced, a resident of Tokyo was always welcome to the crowd as the winner. Home team wins.

A few moments later, Haruka got off her bike and started to walk to where she'd be officially congratulated for winning this race. The other racers were just pulling up, witness how far they'd been behind.

Looking at her pass, Ranma made her way down. Acting as a cute girl to embarrass Haruka a little after the stunt on the way here would be sweet revenge. After all, two could play the game.

-CM-

Nodoka, formerly of the Saotome clan, looked up at the gates to the country mansion with a look on her face that seemed to combine nostalgic memories with a sense of dread. It had taken a couple of hours for her to take the trains and busses out to this remote prefecture, but she had turned down an offer from Haruka to drive her there. It would have inconvenienced the younger woman a great deal, and Nodoka had wanted to do this alone.

Looking back briefly at the street that she'd just walked down, the auburn haired woman walked resolutely towards the gates and pushed a call button on one side.

A little later, Nodoka looked around the small home office, surprised. Her parents' house had always been very strictly Japanese, and the oak paneled walls, padded chairs and almost waist height desk were very American or European additions.

The woman took her attention off of the décor as she heard the door in the corner of the room opening, admitting the form of a middle-aged looking man with hair of a similar color to her own. She knew that he only looked middle-aged, as he was her own father and was currently about 57.

He sat at the desk and began rummaging through several stacks of paper on top it. Nodoka knew better than to draw attention until after he was done. Since her chair was close to the front of the desk, she caught a glimpse of many papers he was moving. Several of them had little or nothing to do with her, but she saw one that had a mug-shot of Genma along with a set of statistics, and what appeared to be a set of school records for Ranma.

"So, you have returned, Nodoka?" the man said, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence without turning around at all.

Nodoka was taken aback. There wasn't an honorific on the end of her name. That could mean one of two things. Either he was being very casual or very disrespectful. Given what she remembered of her father, she was going with the latter. Deciding not to return insult for insult.

She simply replied, "Yes I have, Himura-sama," politely.

The man looked up at her quizzically for a moment, stopping his rummaging for just a few seconds. "You believe that I will allow you to regain the name and honor of the Himura family. That is why you came here, correct?"

Nodoka wanted to shift nervously, however she suppressed it as best she could. "That is correct, Himura-sama," she stated.

"Why?" the old man demanded, turning around and sat down in his chair behind his desk. "You see, I've done research on the family you were previously a part of, and your actions in it." Nodoka wanted to speak up, but he kept right on going. "I saw your husband, a dishonorable coward who practiced a martial art lead by the most perverted and vile man on the home islands."

"Genma Saotome is not my husband any longer, and I had no idea of what he was doing while he was away from me," Nodoka objected, but was cut off when her father continued.

"Yes, divorce. Not entirely honorable, is it?" he commented, before continuing. "As for your son, a boy who barely made passing grades in school, studies the same art, and has some… deviant… cross-dressing habits."

Nodoka couldn't restrain herself after this comment. "Ranma is doing his best to pursue honor even within his art, and the curse is not his fault!" she called, before realizing what she had done. She stopped dead for a moment, realizing that she'd just over-stepped her bounds, and then shrugged. She'd blown it, might as well continue. "As for divorcing Genma, would you have preferred me continue associating with him, or maybe chop his head off in a seppuku ceremony? Well, I almost did, and that is precisely why I can never refer to my son as son again!"

The man on the other side of the desk stopped for a moment, looking curiously at the immensely angry woman in the chair across from him. What he did next was a complete surprise to her. He began to clap.

"Wh… what?" Nodoka asked, confused.

"Congratulations, Nodoka," the man said, his stony face breaking into a smile. "You defended yourself admirably, and finally displayed some character, rather than just slavishly devoting yourself to honor."

"But…" Nodoka sputtered, still not knowing what was going on. "You always drilled me on the proper ways of acting, and you were always insistent on maintaining proper protocol."

"Of course. Honor and protocol are important, however there are situations where they must be discarded for what you believe, even if it seems, or indeed is, incorrect," the man stated. "We did not cut off ties with you because you married Genma Saotome all those years ago, we did so because you slunk off in the middle of the night to do so rather than confronting me or your mother and telling us what you were going to do. That is not the way a member of our family would do things."

Nodoka sat there, shocked. Her father looked at her, as if he was expecting relief, or happiness, or… anything, but she just sat there. In her mind many thoughts swirled around each other. The first was, 'This was a test?' That bounced around a few times, until it smacked into another thought. 'You aren't acting very manly, Ranma.' For some reason, those two thoughts locked together in her mind. The implications of the first were so much like the second, so much like the way she'd been treating her son ever since she found out about his curse, that it made her head spin.

Nodoka very slowly stood from her chair, and started to turn away. "Where are you going, Nodoka?" the man at the desk asked, curiously.

The former Saotome turned back towards him. "I'm leaving, Mr. Himura," she responded, before remembering something. Withdrawing the shinai that Akane had given her when she'd left the Tendo home, she slapped it down on his desk.

He wouldn't understand what it meant, but she did. She had known that her family had a great tradition of fighting with the sword, ever since one of them had been one of the main figures in the Meiji restoration. She had always carried a blade, even though she didn't know how to use it, in order to honor that past. Placing her blade on the table and walking away, leaving the man that she would have been glad to call father again behind, she walked out of the room, down the hall and out of the house.

It wasn't until she was outside that she let her emotions free, a sort of horrible combination of tears and anger that kept her from raising her face as she left the grounds.

"Nodoka-san, are you alright?" came a shocked and surprised voice from in-front of her. Looking up, the auburn haired woman saw Setsuna Meiou standing next to a black car.

"Setsuna-san, why are you here?" Nodoka asked, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes and trying to regain composure.

"You said that you would be done at around 1:30, so I thought I would come and pick you up," Setsuna said. "Now what's wrong?" As she asked Nodoka this, the green-haired woman lead her to the passenger seat of the black car and walked around to the driver's side.

-CM-

"Are you ready to tell me what happened?" Setsuna asked, sitting on a stool next to Nodoka as the older looking woman took another small sip from a glass of clear liquid that wasn't water. She hoped she didn't sound impatient, even though she was, as Nodoka really did need someone to talk to at the moment.

"Have you… have you ever had everything you ever believed in revealed as an impossible task?" the auburn-haired woman asked, softly.

Setsuna wanted to respond with a resounding yes, but was pretty sure that she couldn't tell the story of how the time gates had suddenly stopped working without sounding completely insane, so merely stayed silent, waiting for her companion to keep going.

"I spent my entire life attempting to live up to my family's standards, even though I'd married someone they considered 'below my station'," Nodoka said, angrily. "Now, I find out that it was all a test… that no matter how well I did in living up to their ideals, I would have never succeeded."

"So… you're upset at them for putting you through the test," Setsuna hazarded, taking a sip on her own drink, her second as opposed to Nodoka's fourth. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a little voice was telling her that taking Nodoka out drinking to make her less depressed had been one of the less inspired decisions she'd made in the last few hundred years, but she dismissed that voice rather easily.

"No…. Yes…." Nodoka said, shaking her head slightly. "I am angry at them, but… I understand what they were thinking," she said, quietly. "That's the part that bothers me so much. I understand why they did it."

Setsuna raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Do you know why I pushed the Seppuku promise so hard when I was living at the Tendo home?" Nodoka asked, seeming to push things off course.

Setsuna shrugged, thankful for the fact that her powers gave her an accurate time keeper in her head so she didn't look at a watch. "Why?" she finally asked, after Nodoka had been silent for a few moments.

"I.. wanted to make Ranma a better person." She laughed, bitterly. "I knew that Genma had done damage to my son's character while he was making him such a good martial artist and I used the threat of the Seppuku contract to try and make him improve." She stopped for a moment, and then whispered "Parents always know what's best for their children, right?" before sobbing quietly over her glass.

Setsuna sighed again. "It's all right..." she said, quietly, patting Nodoka on the shoulder.

"Hello ladies, I couldn't help but notice…" a rather disreputable looking man who had just sidled up to the bar started, before stepping back at Setsuna's icy glare. "I… I'm sorry, Ma'am. I'll just leave you two alone, then."

'Didn't even have to say a word. Still got it,' the guardian of time thought, before turning back to the crying other woman and continuing to comfort her.

-CM-

After returning from the track, the house had been empty, so Ranma had suggested that they should do some overdue testing of their powers. It was supposed to be a simple spar in their Senshi forms to gauge their level, but Ranma had escalated it, until she taken the roofs and Uranus had instinctively followed her, not noticing the feats she was doing.

"Hey, will you get back here?" Sailor Uranus called, as Neptune leapt across a busy street, from one rooftop to another.

"What, can't you catch me?" the redhead smirked, looking back at her fiancée. day had done wonders to dissipate the dark clouds that had hung over their heads yesterday over the distasteful things they hoped were not forced to do.

"You know I can't jump roofs," Uranus grumbled, glaring.

"Oh? Then how'd you get up here?" Neptune returned, gesturing to the roof, where Uranus was standing. "Now hurry up, we've got to find somewhere to change back."

Uranus gaped, walking to the edge of the roof and looking down to see the ground a couple stories below. Gulping nervously, she propelled herself into the air, astonished as her feet carried her much higher than they should have. As she was on the descending side of her arc, she let the sensation of the world flying past around her and the wind blowing in her short hair register.

"Wow…" she said, landing next to Neptune on the roof across the street. "That was… amazing!"

Neptune grinned. "I know. First time I did it, pop was chasing after me with a whip, but I still found it fun," she said. "Want to try some more?"

"Well, I…" Uranus started, before the other Senshi took off. "Hey, get back here!" she called, indignantly, charging after and leaping the gap between this roof and the next without thinking about it. To her surprise and annoyance, Neptune kept going, leading her on a merry chase across the city. Still, it was so much fun that driving her bike down a track paled in comparison.

Much to her surprise, the blonde actually found herself slowly closing the gap with the redhead, even though she saw that the other girl was going at full speed and cutting corners wherever she could.

Within about ten minutes, the trailing girl had caught up with the other, grabbing her. "Got'cha!" she laughed, swinging the other around quickly and they ended up in a heap on the roof, Uranus doing a full-body pin.

Neptune laughed, enjoying herself being so carefree with Haruka to get rid of the angsting of yesterday. She then moaned a little when the other girl used the occasion to press their bodies together, their covered breasts rubbing against each other in most pleasurable ways.

"Mmmm... You can be a real pervert... Not that I complain."

"Pervert and proud of it," Uranus said, squeezing Neptune more tightly before letting go and helping her up. However, she could not resist to give her a playful slap on the butt, causing Neptune to yelp in surprise.

"That was for the gushy girlfriend act earlier today, right?" Seeing Uranus smirk, it answered the question. "Well, I'll get you back, trust me," she told her with a smile that said many things, before leaping down the side of the building and into an alley near their home. Dumbly, Uranus followed, and once she'd landed she triggered the transformation back to civilian form.

"You know…" she said, as the two headed out of the alley. "If that's part of being a Senshi, maybe I can put up with the clothes."

Ranma laughed. "Don't you mean the lack of clothes? I know you watched when we changed back. Oh, I did so as well, you look good in your birthday suit." Seeing Haruka blush was worth it.

Haruka was loathe to admit it, but she absolutely enjoyed seeing Ranma de-transform; next time she hopefully would manage to catch a glimpse of her cute butt. And then she blushed harder when remembering yesterday. Setsuna had looked like a total knock-out in the nude and she'd almost gotten a nosebleed from the sight. Also, she'd already guessed that her green ahir was natural.

Ranma then continued "I can teach you how to roofhop without transforming."

"Really?" Haruka asked, skeptically. Ranma simply nodded, digging around in her pocket for her key to the house.

"Yeah," the redhead explained. "But first I..." She stopped when entering the house. The reason was clear when they saw a scroll sitting on the living room table, together with a note that said 'Have fun with this'. And the note was undoubtly in Happosai's horrible handwriting.

-CM-

"Sempaiiii, I want to have your babies!" Makoto shook her head as she was trying to find the best way to approach Mousse. That sounded a little too creepy and stalkerish, and also just a bit too forward.

She was walking toward the Duck Cafe, wondering how to break it to him that she liked him. He seemed a little oblivious of the fact, so he propably needed so encouragement, if they were to go an a date.

"I heard you like to cook, like my melons?" No, that just sounded way too weird, so she threw that one out as well. No need to talk about her tits, those were obvious enough.

"Haiiii, I think you are cute!" Nope, still too forward and it made her sound dangerously like Usagi.

"What choo doing?" Makoto rehearsed again, shaking her head. This one made her sound even more air-headish.

"Hi, I'm Makoto!" She nodded, this line is much more acceptable than the previous ones as she opened up the door to enter into the Duck Cafe.

Inside it was an unusually slow day for the Duck Cafe, even for a Sunday, the cafe was currently empty except for its proprietors. Mousse exited the back room as he heard a potential customer entered the door. Cologne was sweeping the floor and Happosai was in the back cooking. He was a surprisingly good cook, and Mousse had him cooking in the back so he would not scare away the female customers with his antics.

Cologne looked up from her sweeping, when she heard the tingling of bells over the front door opening. She immediately spotted the maniacal glint in the girl's eyes as soon as her eyes caught Mousse.

She chuckled softly to herself, she swore these Japanese girls could be worse than Amazons when it came to the opposite sex, and that's saying walked over to the door, and flipped the sign from open to close, since there weren't any customers at the moment anyway.

"Haiiii Mousse," Makoto said all of her rehearsing out the window, "What choo doing?"

Her entire rehearsals beforehand completely thrown out, her eyes glazed over as she saw being the sexual predator she prided herself as, she was pretty she once it became serious. Only Minako was even worse.

Mousse fidgeted as Makoto looked him up and down like she wanted to eat him up like the Chinese duck that he sometimes was. He'd seen that look on other girls and knew that it screamed "want you!".

"So, do you want to go out on Saturday?" Makoto asked, a blush forming on her face. Six days should be enough to prepare and calm her nerves.

"Umm..umm..." Mousse's brain was not working at that moment, but from the back room a flying projectile came flying out, and bounced off of Mousse's head, jarring him out of his Makoto-induced stupor. "Sure" Mousse finally said.

-CM-

She stood on the challenge log, a steady stream of sweat dripping off of her forehead as she squared off against yet another warrior. A wonder that all the sweat had not turned her into a cat.

Shampoo had demanded the right to explain herself, and the council had given it, but only if she could fight her way through every warrior in the village, back up to her former spot of champion.

The problem came when one considered that there were forty six warriors in the village, and they'd had her fighting ten of them every day. Fortunately for her stamina and her life, this was the last. She was a towering woman by the name of Dowell, the one she'd beaten two years ago for the title of village's champion before the outsider had come and taken it away from her so easily.

Shampoo smirked, even as some more of the sweat dripped into her eyes, causing them to flinch shut. What Dowell didn't know was that being in Nerima for so long had toughened the purple-haired woman up quite a bit. Leaping forward, she delivered a strong blow across the other woman's fat head with her Bonbori, staggering her. Before the mass of muscle could re-align herself, Shampoo's other mace had swept her feet, sending her crashing off of the log in a very painful looking manor.

Jumping off herself, Shampoo bowed to the elders who were watching. "I have proven myself, correct?" she asked, in formal Chinese.

The women conferred amongst themselves for a moment, before the leader nodded. "Yes, Xian Pu, you have. You may speak, but if we do not approve of what you have to say…" she said, warningly.

"I understand, honored elder," the purple-haired girl said, bowing. "I merely wish to gain that which is rightfully mine." The elders nodded, escorting her back to the village's main meeting hut.

-CM-

"Thank all goodness that this isn't in the chicken scratches that old perv calls his handwriting.." Ranma mumbled, while going through the contents of the scroll that Happosai had left for him. He read it, then started to blush. "Oh man..."

"Ok, what is it, or do I have to ply it out of your hands?" Haruka asked. That reaction had been interesting, as there were only certain things that could embarrass Ranma.

Ranma dared to look up from the scroll. "It's a pressure point that temporarily and without harm increases the...uhm... sexual stamina and makes you very horny," he finally dared to say.

Haruka raised an eyebrow. "So what?"

"You don't understand. It works on men and woman..." Seeing that Haruka now understood, he added "Using that would make us quite busy..."

"A pressure point for us to do it like the rabbits, fits to your description of him. Don't throw it away. We should keep this for our honeymoon," Haruka decided, seeing the use this could have. It actually was a nice present.

"Pervert..." he said with a slight smile, before putting the scroll aside. The sound of the house's front door opening reverberated through the front hall right then. After a few moments of silence, he called out "Who's out there?"

"It's only us, Ranma-chan!" came Nodoka's voice, though she seemed far too cheerful.

"Hmm, I guess her visit with her parents went well," Haruka said dryly, as the two got up and headed for the door. Her estimation swung sharply the other way as she saw Setsuna and Nodoka leaning on each other, grinning happily. The green-haired woman looked much more sober than the auburn haired one, but that really wasn't saying much. "What the heck happened to you two?" she drawled, almost not believing what she was seeing.

"Aw, Setsuna-chan just took me out to have some fun, right?" Nodoka asked, her speech quite audibly slurred.

"Mom…?" Ranma said, forgetting himself in his astonishment. Quickly, he moved forward as she collapsed. "Ugh, your breath smells like the old man's after a night out with Mr. Tendo," he complained, wrinkling his nose.

"I'm sorry..." the older woman said, letting her head drop into Ranma's shoulder.

He was about to comment, when he felt her pass out. "Hmm, guess I know where I got my tolerance to alcohol from," he mused, carrying her upstairs to bed.

"You got her drunk?" Haruka asked, looking at Setsuna in disbelief.

The green haired woman shrugged. "It was one of those times when she needed it," she explained.

"Oh, is that what you say to the students you council?" the blonde asked, disbelieving.

"No, but she's not one of my students," Setsuna responded, shortly, before walking into the house and looking curiously at the scroll on the table. "What's this?" she asked, pointing.

"Ranma found it here, says that Happosai character left it here for him," Haruka explained, wondering why Setsuna was so interested.

A Cheshire grin formed on Setsuna's face, as she spotted the title of the technique. "Have fun!" she called, as she sauntered up the upstairs.

Haruka became beet-red and felt like sinking into the ground in embarrassment. Even a pervert had her limits.

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Death Busters

"Kaolinite..." the Professor called into the darkness, while observing the result of his work that floated in front of him.

"You have called, Professor?" she asked, walking out of the darkness of the parts of the laboratory that were further away from the work area. Being there to help the man she adored was alwas good to brighten her day, even though it was currently deepest night.

"Yes, Kaolinite, the formula is now perfect and I have created the first of the final batch of Daimon, which will serve us to unveil for us, where the talismans are hidden..." he explained, while observing the hovering crystal egg. "I actually fitted them with a tracking device to find holders of promising heart crystals."

"You didn't trust the Witches 5 to find promising candidates?" Kaolinite wondered, although in reality she wasn't sad about this fact at all, as she couldn't stand these young and arrogant know-all's.

"Hmmm, you sound like you are jealous, Kaolinite..." the Professor said in amusement and saw the pale woman look down. "Don't worry, this bunch of backstabbers right now couldn't even repair a clogged toilet. I have to constantly make sure they won't kill each other."

"I like to hear that..." she said with a slight smile.

"You were alway devious... Even back then when you were just hired as a housekeeper, you had this streak. You have proven your loyality numerous times and our Master has answered by giving you all the power you need to serve him. Quite remarkable..."

Kaolinite liked to hear this praise, it strengthened her ego. "My life is now the Death Busters. I do everything to further our goals."

"Your loyality will be well-rewarded..." the Professor said, then watched the egg float away. "It'll find its target and notify you as soon as it has taken root. Soon we'll have the Grail in our possession!"

"Very well, I'll stay on stand-by for the extraction." She then teleported away, leaving the Professor alone in the laboratory.

'Well, well, well...what a loyal soldier. Wonder if she knows what the Master really plans?'

'Damn monster, why do you have to torture me with my errors?'

'Oh yes, after all it was your error that opened the door for us. We have to really thank you for you cooperation, Professor.'

'Germatoid, you are a monster...'

The whole exchange had went through his head in seconds, and in answer to it, he suddenly let out a stream of demented laughter to let out the pressure and to mock the man whose life he'd taken over.

-CM-

She didn't want to move. Every time she'd moved, the little men with the mallets had started up in her head again. Unfortunately, someone else had other ideas. "C'mon, wake up," a soft, though deep, voice said as a hand shook her gently.

Nodoka, formerly of the Saotome clan, cracked her eyes open reluctantly and immediately winced from the stabbing of the morning sun light into them. "Urk, what happened?" she managed to croak out, her mouth tasting rather a lot like carpet.

The male voice came again, actually sounding slightly amused. "You drank a little bit too much last night, aunt Nodoka," he said, pushing a glass of water into one of her hands. "You'll feel better in a little while."

"Ranma?" she asked, looking over to the side of the bed to see the pigtailed martial artist sitting there, another glass of water and a few other things sitting on the table next to him. Immediately, her cheeks reddened. She was Ranma's mother, and yet here he was, sitting at her bedside and helping her get over a hangover.

"I can't believe this..." she muttered, though she did take a small drink from the water, the cool liquid helping wash the taste out of her mouth.

He shrugged. "Did this for Genma enough times." He stopped, contemplating for a moment. "Well, with him it usually started with a kick in the side."

Nodoka giggled in spite of herself, the movement causing her to wince again.

"Bout the only time I could wake up before the old panda," Ranma explained.

"So, why are you doing this for me?" Nodoka asked, after taking another drink from her glass of water, and a couple of small pills that Ranma had offered her.

He shrugged. "I know how it feels," he explained, getting a surprised look from her.

"When did you get drunk?" she asked. It didn't really seem to be something that Ranma would do, but she supposed he must have done something to blow off stress in Nerima, and this may have been it.

"Long story, involving Kuno and a giant bottle of sake," he said, shortly, before handing her the next glass of water that was sitting on the side of the bed. "Mind telling me why you had to get yourself smashed?" He stopped, contemplating how to say what was next, but eventually decided that he would suck at being tactful anyways. "I guess your visit with your parents didn't work out too well."

Nodoka winced as the memory of the confrontation the day before flooded back into her mind. "It didn't go the way I wanted it to," she admitted, softly.

"You want to tell me about it?" he asked. Smirking ironically, he continued. "I'm kinda an expert on really bad first impressions."

Nodoka winced again, this time not from her massive headache as she heard the way Ranma had said those words. "I think we both made our mistakes then, Ranma," she said, softly, prompting a nod from the younger boy. He didn't say anything else, simply waiting, so she sighed and began to recount what had happened during her meeting with her father.

"And then Setsuna-san came," she finished, after a few minutes of talking.

Ranma winced. "Yeah, that sounds like it could have gone better..." he muttered, and then perked up slightly. "Well, at least you know it's repairable."

Nodoka's head whipped around to look at him from the lowered position she'd brought it back to during the course of her tale, and she looked at him in surprise. "What?"

"Well, he didn't chase you off the property with a Katana." He said, smirking. Seeing that her face was beginning to cloud up, he quickly continued. "Look, We're..." He struggled to find the right words, but shrugged in defeat when he couldn't. "Due to honor I can't call you mom anymore, but I still want to. In spite of the stupid seppuku thing, and the manliness stuff, yet... I love you," he finished.

Fortunately, it was much easier to say to her than to Haruka and Akane, probably because of the difference between the two types of love.

Picking his words carefully, he continued. "Despite all the stuff I did, the hiding, the fact that I ain't all that good in school, the fact that I ran from the family..." he trailed off, looking away. "You... you still came to look for me. All I'm saying is that neither of you screwed up quite as bad as me and you haven't, right?"

Nodoka wasn't sure what to say. Ranma's point had been delivered with the subtlety of a sledge hammer, but he DID have a point. There had been no cursing, no swearing, no gnashing of teeth or death threats. Maybe... She turned to her former son with a radiant smile. "Thank you, Ranma," she said, ignoring the effects of the hangover, which had actually been fading for a while now, and leaning over to hug the boy.

He looked sheepish. "It's no problem," he said, before his eyes rested on the clock next to her bed. "Aw, crap..." he muttered, causing Nodoka to pull away and look at him in concern.

"What is it, Ranma?" She asked.

"I'm going to be late for school!" he yelped, jumping up from the chair. As he did so, his knee knocked the table next to her bed. He cursed in pain, the sound abruptly increasing in pitch as the glass of water that she'd set down on the table when she'd started to talk jolted from the blow, dumping its contents over his lower body.

Nodoka stifled a giggle as a panicked and annoyed redhead ran for the door. 'What a manly son,' she thought, her giggles getting worse, as she fell back into her bed to sleep in for another hour.

-CM-

Haruka frowned as she walked down the road that lead to school.

Ranma had insisted that he should make sure Nodoka was alright before he left for school, but he'd still been in her room when Haruka had to leave. She didn't want to interrupt them, in case he was having a private conversation with his mother, but she hoped that nothing bad had happened. Seeing the building approaching and the large clock that had been mounted above the front doors, the blonde's steps began to quicken.

She hadn't realized she was that late.

As she was about to enter the front door, she saw a red blur dart past her. "Wow, he's moving fast this morning," she muttered, recognizing the blur as Ranma's female form. Shrugging it off and deciding that she'd ask him what had happened when they got home, she walked through the door that the redhead had left wide open in her passage, heading off to class.

-CM-

Ranma grumbled to herself as she walked down the hall to her wood shop class, wishing that she hadn't been careless enough not to have noticed the time. As it was, she had almost been late to English class and had ended up sitting through the entire class as a girl.

She wouldn't have minded that so much, if half of the guys in the class hadn't stared at her... or better, at her breasts, which had showed quite prominently from under the shirt. Recently she'd started to feel uncomfortable when that happened, finally understanding why Akane had been furious over her lack of feminine modesty in the past.

She sighed, but then brightened. There was a bathroom next to the shop class, so she would be able to turn back into a guy before second period.

As she turned into the short hallway where both the wood shop and the small classroom that was used for hands off lessons were, she saw the last remnants of the younger class leaving their room for lunch break.

In the very back of the line was the small black haired girl she'd helped before. Smiling, she waved. The girl seemed startled, but tentatively waved back, so Ranma walked over to her. "You doing okay this week?" the redhead asked, concerned.

"Y... yes, ma'am," the girl, Ranma thought she'd been called Hotaru, said as she bowed.

"Hey, don't call me that. Name's Ranko," Ranma said, having gotten back into the habit of using that name already. "Those guys ain't bugging you anymore?"

Hotaru shook her head.

"Good..." Ranma said. "Tell me if anything happens." Suddenly she thought of something. "If I'm not around, my brother will help you. He wears the same kind of clothes as me, but his hair's black."

"Thank you, Ranko-san," Hotaru said shyly, before turning around and walking down the hall. As she turned the corner, her eyes seemed to change from their normal, deep violet color to a jet black, but then they returned to normal. She shook her head, shaking off the sudden dizzy spell she'd just had, and went off to have lunch.

-CM-

No one noticed the small, crystalline egg floating over the Minato ward of Tokyo. It had detected a very promising candidate for a pure heart and would now fulfill its purpose.

Floating over the grounds of a shrine, it slowly descended, until touching the tree on which all the fortunes were fastened on, fusing with the wood. No one had seen a thing, but now it would wait for its prey to come close. Then it would awaken to take what its masters were looking for.

Fortune would not help its target.

-CM-

Cologne was busy talking to her long time friend Setsuna, when Ranma and Haruka walked into the Duck Cafe with a lost look on their face. The conversation they had had with Setsuna still on their minds, Ranma for one did not like the wait and see attitude that Setsuna suggested, he'd rather do things a bit proactively. He did not become a martial artist at his caliber by just sitting around and doing nothing.

Ranma had learned his lessons in Nerima about the perils of not acting when it was necessary. He would only hurt the people around him, and he cared too much about everyone, especially Haruka, to have them affected by this new threat. He softly squeezed Haruka's hand, to which she turned and caught his eyes and flash him a rare soft smile.

"What are you doing here, Setsuna?" Ranma asked somewhat curious.

Setsuna calmly took a sip of her tea, hiding the distraught that she was feeling, and answered "Just visiting an old friend," putting an emphasis on 'old.'

"Who you calling old?" Cologne asked her chi cracking dangerously as she stepped out from the back room, "You are older than I am, Time Hag!" Setsuna just stuck out her tongue at Cologne and continued to sip on her tea.

Ranma and Haruka looked on at this weird scene, with a little bit of trepidation. It wasn't every day they got to see several century old women acted like children.

"We need your help again, Sensei," Ranma said straight out and Cologne raised her eyebrows up in response to this statement.

"Does this pertains to...?" Cologne asked leaving out the magic out purposely, to which Ranma simply nodded.

She did a quick scan on Haruka, and saw the elemental magic coming off of her much like Ranma did. But Ranma's magic and chi line were almost perfectly aligned, witness of his intense focus, and it would be a matter of weeks before he would no longer require the magical transformation in order to access his full powers. Although he probably should keep using it, as it ensured to keep his identity a secret.

Cologne led both Ranma and Haruka toward her secret chamber. As they entered her chamber, she saw her anteroom was completely redecorated with a large carpet and a large wooden table along with a chair sitting in the middle of the room. In the chair sat one Setsuna Meioh calmly sipping on her tea like nothing was wrong.

"Damn it, Setsuna!" Cologne exclaimed, "This was for the time hag wasn't it, and how long did it take you to crack it this time?"

Setsuna just smirked as she slowly stir her tea with a spoon and answered calmly, "I did warn you about calling me a Time Hag, didn't I? No woman likes her age made fun of. And it took me only about an hour or so..."

Cologne grinned smugly cutting Setsuna off. "I am getting better, it took you longer to crack this than the last time"

Setsuna's smirk turned absolutely vicious, and finished with "assumed time."

Ranma and Haruka looked from Setsuna to Cologne trying to figure out what is with this weird exchange between the two. Setsuna turned toward them and answered the question that they were projecting, "We have this competition going for the last century or so, as to who can make a temporal defense better than the other, and let's just say, Cologne have yet to crack mine completely."

Cologne turned to Setsuna and asked "How long did it take you in real time?"

"The usual amount," Setsuna just grinned at Cologne with a toothy smile taking a long sip from her tea.

With a sigh of defeat, Cologne turned to Ranma "What was it you need help on?"

"Is there a way for us to see heart crystals without the need to take them out of someone?" Ranma asked the former amazon.

"This was the same question you asked me earlier, Setsuna. Why do they need to see heart crystals?" Cologne turned to her long time friend.

"Pharaoh 90," was all Setsuna said.

Cologne pondered for a second, mulling something through her mind, then she answered "There is in fact a technique that would allow you to look at a heart crystal while it is still safely inside a body. However, for you to see it you need to concentrate your elemental magic through your eyes. If not done correctly, it could make you go blind or the heart crystal could be shattered by the magic."

"Cologne you have been holding out on me!" Setsuna complained with a pout.

Cologne just cackled merrily, it was good to have Setsuna around again, they were each other's confidant for close to a century. Setsuna had told her there was more to Happosai than met the eye, but she had refused to listen at the time. However, that was for another time.

She shook her head, and continued "It would usually take about a week to fully train this technique"

Setsuna interjected, "I can only give them about two days off from school at most without the principal asking too many questions."

Cologne paused for a few seconds and then nodded, "I think I can make two days work"

"Great!" Ranma said, finally getting over the shock of the careless banter between two usually very calmly composed individuals. Having a new technique to learn always put him into overdrive.

"When do we start?" Haruka asked, following Ranma's train of thought.

"First thing tomorrow morning, we'll head out toward the mountains," Cologne answered.

"Oh no, that would create a bureaucratic nightmare for me. Push it back one day so that I can make proper excuses..." Setsuna right then stopped and held up her hand, as if sensing that something was wrong. Then her eyes widened. "Our Enemy is on the move, they are heading towards the Hikawa Shrine!"

With a cry of their transformation phrases, a Sailor Neptune and a Sailor Uranus bolted out of the Duck Cafe and toward the location that Setsuna had told them. Hopefully they'd be there in time to prevent the worst.

-CM-

Rei Hino stared into the sacred fire, the bags under her eyes and her slight pallor telling anyone who wanted to look that she hadn't slept for the past couple of nights. The dreams had actually started on Saturday morning, waking her from a sound sleep with visions of the other Senshi being destroyed running through her head. That had been the only true 'vision,' she believed, but she'd had nightmares representing it every night since.

She hadn't been able to get the images from her mind, and as she meditated, the fire flashed chaotically, a mirror to her thoughts. She also couldn't forget this song, this beautiful melody which nonetheless was announcing the coming of death.

Sighing in defeat, the fire Senshi stood, dusting the front of her robes free of ash. "I should tell the others..." she muttered, turning away and walking from the inner sanctum of the shrine. She knew by now that holding this from the others could only have bad consequences.

Today had already been a bad enough day. Two very annoying pop quizzes in school and then colliding with Usagi after school head-on, getting a bump on her forehead as a result. The others would arrive soon. Ami had been very eager to tell them something, but had said that they should be all together. No idea what she thought to be so important.

Closing the door to the sanctum, she looked over the empty temple grounds. Today was a slow day with little to no attendance, which was a relief for her in her current state of mind. Her grandfather had decided to get some sleep, seeing as there weren't any girls to ogle today. Yuuichiro had a day off.

Stopping by the small booth where she or Yuuichiro occasionally sold fortunes, she grabbed one of the little sticks, carefully reading the Kanji that was written on its side.

'The air will protect you,' she read and smiled. 'It's a nice thought.'

She walked up to the cherry tree to the side of the stairs, tying the fortune to one of its branches. She didn't know if it would give her luck, considering all the other fortunes in that tree, but it couldn't hurt. She didn't notice a woman appearing 20 meters above the ground, watching with interest.

Kaolinite saw the target, the Daimon had alerted her to its presence. A miko of course was a prime candidate for having a pure heart. With a smirk she gave the Daimon the silent sign that now was the moment to strike.

Rei just had fastened the fortune when the sense that warned her of evil flared in the back of her mind, though it was far too late. The tree was awash in blinding light, forcing her back. In horror she watched the tree coming to life and ripping itself out of the ground, turning into a monster, although this one looked pretty plain compared to some of the stuff they'd faught in the past. Essentially it just looked like a woman with sickly blue skin and pointed ears, having extremly long hair in a huge braid and wearing a mockery of Rei priestess garb in screaming colors. A quiver full of larger versions of the fortune telling sticks was strapped to its back.

"Mikuji..." it breathed, before turning to Rei with a mean smile. "You care for your friends... You have a pure heart... I'll take that now!"

END.

Beta-read by Tribun.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Trouble at the Hikawa Shrine

Running through the small wood that surrounded the temple grounds, Rei knew that the monster was chasing her. She'd run away to not accidently endanger her grandfather when she would battle the monster... whatever kind of monster that was, since she'd never seen something like that before. From her miko training she knew that the thing was completely devoid of any form of energy, which was unlike any monsters the Senshi had to face before.

As she ran, she saw the outer perimeter wall, meaning that there was nowhere else to go. With her back to the wall, she quickly pulled her transformation wand out of her robe... but not quick enough.

"Ahhh!" she screamed in surprise, when suddenly the monster grabbed her by the wrists and constrained the wrist of the hand holding the wand hard enough that she had to let go in order to let blood flow into her hand, her wand cluttering to the ground. She scrambled to reach for the wand with her other hand, but another tendrill grabbed her other hand and pulled it away from the transformation wand. End result, she got pinned to the wall.

Kaolinite slowly stepped out from behind a tree. "Mikuji, this girl's crystal is shining bright. Extract it so that you can check if there's a talisman inside."

"Gladly..." Suddenly the monster gripped Rei's robe and ripped it open to expose her upper body, much to the horror of the girl.

Kaolinite rolled her eyes. "Mikuji, please don't be so dramatic. You know you can extract it through the fabric."

Mikuji licked her lips. "I know... It is just more fun to humiliate my prey before the final strike." Ripping open her own shirt, the Daimon revealed a star-shaped tatoo between her breasts, from which a black tendrils erupted, reaching into Rei's bare chest.

"Ahhhhhh!" Rei screamed when her entire body was burning from the forceful extraction of her heart crystal. Even the mutliple burns she got from accidentally touching the sacred fire were not as bad anymore compared to this excruciating pain. Even dying had not felt as bad as this. Her body began to convulse from the pain. Her screams filled the morning air as the world stood still and silent.

The silence was broken by a soft chuckle. "A little sadistic, aren't you Mikuji? Well, once you've decided to finally do the deed, call me. I have other things to do in the meantime." That said, Kaolinite teleported away.

Rei continued to scream in pain. It seemed as if this monster wanted to torture her to death, and she didn't even know, why and who. All she knew was, that it hurt so much... Her sight already became blurry, when suddenly.

"OW!" The monster stopped her attack and held her side, where she'd been hit by a glowing discus.

"Stop that! I'm Sailor Moon and I won't allow you to hurt her!"

Mikuji suddenly gave the heroine, whom she'd spotted standing at the top of the wall, a cold smile. "Ah yes... The self-proclaimed defenders of this pitiful city. I will enjoy this... and you won't!"

-CM-

Mamoru Chiba sighed as he sat at the counter in Crown Fruit Parlor, looking at the test paper that Usagi had thrown at him. Sure, her grade wasn't the best, but he'd obviously overdone the teasing and angered her.

'Maybe I was too hard on her,' he thought, looking at the barely passing grade.

He'd gotten the test from a depressed Usagi earlier that day and had immediately started to tease her about how badly she'd done on it. He was only trying to help her, to make her do better, but maybe he'd gone overboard and she'd looked quite hurt. He hated hurting Usagi's feelings, but he was usually honestly unsure what was her being a crybaby, and when he'd really gone too far.

"I'll apologize to her next time I see her..." he mumbled, finally.

Just as he said that, a waitress that looked roughly his age set his drink in front of him. "Here, one Fruit-special..." She then noticed his expression. "So, not that it's any of my business, but who are you going to apologize to?" the woman asked, sitting down next to him.

He looked at her, surprised. "Don't you have work to do?"

She waved her hand at the almost empty palor. "Today is a slow day, the few other customers are already served... So, who are you supposed to apologize to?"

Mamoru thought for a moment of telling her to go away, but decided not to. The woman looked far too nice to simply dismiss her. "Usagi. She's… my girlfriend, sort of," he said, not sure how to explain a destined love from a past life.

To be honest, he'd have loved to wait a little for her to become older. He was five years her senior and he'd to be careful what they do in public, as he'd already heard the whispers of people. Thankfully Usagi understood that they couldn't officially appear as a couple in public until her 16th birthday, which was still a little over a year away.

"So, what happened?" she asked, leaning against the counter.

"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Mamoru asked, slightly annoyed.

The woman shrugged, and looked away. "I can leave you alone if you want. You just looked depressed."

Mamoru sighed. "I teased her about a mark on a test, and I think I went a little overboard," he finally said.

"Well, that certainly was not very nice. I think if you honestly apologise to her, she'll forgive you," the woman suggested.

Mamoru was about to respond to that when he felt something in the back of his head. He recognized the feeling. He'd felt it several times, and it usually meant Usagi was in danger. He didn't know how or why the feeling came, but he obeyed it without thinking. Quickly, he grabbed his wallet, slammed a thousand yen bill down on the counter, and started running out of the parlor.

"Wait, your… change?" Kasumi just saw him leaving her field of view. She'd seen some weird customers since starting as a waitress, but this behaviour was more like something she'd expect to see in Nerima.

-CM-

Running as fast as he could, Mamoru quickly found a side alley where he could change identities without much of a problem. Once inside, a red rose appeared out of nowhere in his hand and from one second to the other, he'd turned into Tuxedo Mask and took to the rooftops to reach where his sixth sense was leading him.

Literally flying over the rooftops, it still sometimes awed him how his transformation made him so much more powerful. He was capable of much more than he led on, but looking at his normal tactics would make everyone to think he was a wuss. He'd even already heard Usagi complain that despite her liking these last second rescues, it felt disappointing that he actually was so much weaker than them.

If she only knew.

It was actually that he was capable of much more, which was hindering him. When he'd been under the control of Queen Metallia as the evil Prince Endymion, he'd tapped into his true powers. That was now biting him into the ass, as it had created the irrational fear in him, that using too much power would again turn him into the evil version of Endymion. That was why he didn't like to summon his armour and used only little of his power.

He knew of course that he couldn't keep this up forever.

It wouldn't be long before he'd be forced to take a much more active role in battle. Actually, he knew that since when he'd had to rescue Usagi from Prince Diamond, before the man could force himself on her. He couldn't be a good protector if he was actively restricting himself. He know that one more huge crisis, and he wouldn't hold back any longer.

He heard the blood-curdling scream of Rei as he neared the Hikawa Shrine. 'Oh damn. That smells of trouble!' he silently cursed.

-CM-

Things were not going according to plan.

The monster had surprised Sailor Moon by suddenly letting its hair coiling around her like a snake, before slamming her head-first into the outer wall. And while she'd been dazed, the monster had bound the others, who'd been attracted to the site by the noise, to trees before they could transform. She'd done so with Moon as well after a moment, before turning her attention back to Rei.

"One moment and I'm right back..."

Once more the beam hit Rei in the chest, as her scream of agony resumed. It felt like her very being was sucked out of her body. It was a horrible experience and thankfully she lost consciousness in the middle of the process. A glowing crystal manifested, hovering in front of her chest.

The Daimon looked at the crystal, then snorted in disappointment. "How disppointing, no talisman..." She then turned her attention back to Sailor Moon. "Looks like I'll have a consolation prize."

"No, no…" Sailor Moon gasped when the monster suddenly grabbed her brooch and started to squeeze hard. The brooch cracked under the pressure.

"You were fond of this, aren't you?" Mikuji gloated.

Moon's eyes widened in horror when she felt the transformation magic seeping out from the brooch and fading rapidly. The uniform faded away and after some seconds left Usagi in her civilian outfit. Mikuji eyes danced with a crazed light as she tossed the worthless jewelry to the side, the brooch now more looking like a deformed piece of junk.

"No…." she gasped. However, just as the monster was about to strike her with another blow that would likely finish her off, a red rose streaked through its hand. Mikuji screamed and Usagi sighed in relief. "Tuxedo Mask?" she asked, looking over to see said man standing on the shrine's wall.

Indeed, there was Tuxedo Mask standing on top of the wall. However, unlike normal he wasn't making a speech. Instead he saw that all of the girls were out of the fight... And then he saw the broken brooch lying on the ground. He knew by then what must have happened and was seething in anger.

"And who are you supposed to be?" the Daimon snorted, while her hand reformed itself.

"Your worst nightmare." The Daimon was not concerned when seeing the buffoonish looking man jump towards her. This however changed fast when the cane of the man transformed into a sword and he effortlessly hacked off the Daimon's right arm, black blood shooting out of the wound.

"Aaaarrrgghhhhh! You bastard, I'll..." Mikuji was able to finsih that.

"Nothing! World Shaking!" "Deep Submerge!"

The Daimon was barely able to turn around, before a ball of golden-glowing energy slammed into her, followed by a ball of surprisingly destructive water. It didn't even have the time to scream, before the magic that gave life to it disappeared, returning it to the form of a normal tree. The crystal egg fell to the ground and shattered, the dark essence of the Daimon pouring out of it, before dissipating.

Tuxedo Mask wasted no time to cut the others from the trees, while the mysterious rescuers landed in front of Rei to look at the hovering crystal.

"No, it is not what we look for... Thankfully."

"Good, I would have hated myself, if it would have been."

"Hey, you two?" "Who are you?" "What are you doing to our friend?"

Turning around, Uranus and Neptune looked at their audience. Ami looked with interest at Neptune, but didn't let it show on her features. Uranus held up her hands as a peace gesture. "We are not here to cause you any harm, we know however, how to make your friend better."

Neptune wasted no time to free Rei from the wall. Her friends quickly held her, asking what was wrong with her.

"Here..." Neptune only said, taking the crystal and blushing a little at the sight of Rei's bare chest, before moving it over her heart. She re-absorbed it without problem, letting out a gasp when life returned into her.

"Thanks... but still, who are you?" Tuxedo Mask asked, while helping up Usagi, who was franatically checking her brooch.

"I'm Sailor Uranus." "And I'm Sailor Neptune. And we are here to kick monster ass." Then on a silent sign, both of them jumped over the wall and disappeared.

-CM-

Nodoka looked out the large windows in the living room of Setsuna Meiou's home, bored. Setsuna had left earlier in the day, citing paperwork that needed to be done, and both Ranma and Haruka had left again as soon as they'd dropped off their school stuff. This left her bored with the aftereffects of yesterday's drinking spree on her mind.

'I know I'm probably going to regret this, but I wish something would happen...' she thought

She'd already been kidnapped once while here, and Ranma and Haruka had been attacked in their sleep. Knowing that she didn't want that kind of excitement, the former Saotome walked back to the large chair at one corner of the room and sat down, reaching for her tea cup.

Just as she raised it to her lips, she heard the sound of a knock on the front door. She was so startled that she almost sloshed the tea over the edge of the cup, but quickly regained her composure and set it back down on the table next to the chair before getting up and walking to the door.

She let out a quiet sigh of relief when she opened the door to see a somewhat familiar blonde-haired woman. "Mrs. Tenoh?" She asked.

"Hello, Saotome-san," the other woman said, smiling and bowing. "My husband is off on a business trip to Europe, and I decided to visit Haruka-chan myself. Is she in?"

"I'm afraid she's out at the moment but will return soon," Nodoka said, considering correcting the other woman about her last name, but decided that it wasn't polite. "Would you like to have a cup of tea with me and wait for her and Ranma to get home?"

Mrs. Tenoh nodded and entered the house, carefully sliding off her shoes and replacing them with house slippers before following Nodoka into the living room.

Nodoka herself was just glad for the company, though she still wondered where on Earth Ranma and Haruka were right at the moment.

-CM-

The Inner Senshi plus Mamoru were all sitting in Rei's room, Ami closely watching over the raven-haired priestess as she slept in her bed while scanning her with her computer. After the horrible experience Rei had went through, it was a wonder she wasn't cotamose. The others were sitting around the table in the middle of the room, Mamoru looking worriedly at the despondent Usagi, who was looking down at her damaged transformation brooch.

Ami moved over from where she had finished examining Rei, and shook her head as she took a seat at the table. "I haven't been able to look over my readings in detail yet, but there aren't any others that I can remember with this effect," she said.

"Is Rei alright?" Usagi asked, her voice almost too soft for the other Senshi to hear.

Ami nodded. "She should wake up soon... I can't explain exactly what had happened, but from what I got, I seemed like almost all her life energy had been at once sucked out of her body and forced to take crystal form. And that also means part of the soul."

Minako grimaced. "That sounds really painful. Rei had screamed a lot when it happened."

"It WAS very painful for her. It probably felt for her as if her heart was ripped out. And although there won't be any lasting damage, this had been rather traumatic for her. So please don't take it personal if she's in a foul mood the next days," Ami told them.

"Ok... but now... We have two new Senshi instead of one. And although they were polite enough and saved us from this thing, they pulled a vanishing act right afterwards," Makoto said, pulling the conversation to the other big development of the day.

"What I don't get... Why do they appear only now? All of us awakened really closely together, But it's been months since then," Mamoru wondered. The whole thing made no sense to him.

Usagi frowned. "It's a little strange that they just showed up as these new monsters started to attack," she muttered, causing the others to blink in surprise.

"Usako, are you alright?" Mamoru asked, turning the smaller blonde's face to look at him. "That's not usually your attitude towards newcomers."

Usagi shrugged. "I'm sorry," she said, briefly returning her look to her damaged brooch. It was obvious to the others that the monster damaging it, and the loss of her powers that came with it, was disturbing her greatly.

Artemis finally had enough after watching this. "Please let me look at the damage done to it."

Usagi complied and Artemis carefully opened the damaged transformation item. Right away, the shimmering Silver Crystal greeted them. "It's actually not as bad as I feared. Only the brooch was damaged, the crystal is still intact."

"Why? is that good?" Minako asked.

Artemis sometimes wondered how the once intelligent Senshi of Venus could have become such an airhead. "It means Usagi still can transform into Princess Serenity if the need arises. Actually, with the power of the crystal it would be easy for her to repair the brooch..." Seeing Usagi's mood brighten up, he added the bad news. "...however, there is one small problem."

He looked to Luna and the black mooncat took over. "You see... This is actually a rather delicate usage of the crystal and Usagi won't know how to do it, as Princess Serenity hadn't known, either. Remember she'd been a young teenager at the time of her death. The Queen never had had a chance to teach her the finer points of how to use the Silver Crystal."

"Can't you look up in your computer about that? There must be something about that in all the data," Mamoru asked Ami.

Ami sighed. "Probably yes, but there is a problem. My previous life secured most of the files with a password. I feel the damn thing at the back of my mind but can't put it into a word." Ami looked really frustrated about it, so they let it rest.

"I'm feeling a little tired," Usagi muttered. "I think I should head home."

The other three Senshi looked between each other, coming to a conclusion. Senshi business could wait, as long as things didn't get any worse. "We'll see you tomorrow, Usagi," Makoto said, smiling reassuringly.

The blonde rabbit-girl nodded and smiled at her friends, before standing up and heading for the room's exit. Mamoru quickly followed, obviously going to walk the girl he loved home.

After the two had left the room, Ami looked at the other two conscious Senshi uncomfortably. "You know, she has a point." The blue haired girl said. "Remember how Ail and An showed up before the Cardians started attacking? It also brings me to why I wanted us to meet in the first place."

"You really think someone is impersonating Senshi to get close to us?" Minako asked, surprised.

"Well, Artemis said that Neptune looked slightly different," the taller brown haired girl offered.

"Concerning that... You won't believe me what I found out about her..." Ami felt that this would be a rather lengthy explanation.

-CM-

"I can't believe you did that," Haruka muttered, as she and Ranma walked down the street towards Setsuna's house.

The redhead shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

"You flirted with him to get a free dessert," the blonde sputtered, throwing up her arms.

After the whole battle had been over, Ranma's stomach had protested quite loudly that after all the excitement it needed to be fed. So they'd went to the next fast food retailer and Haruka had then looked baffed how Ranma, who otherwise was very insistant on a male image, had flirted shamlessly to get a freebie.

"And he was dumb enough to do it when I had an obvious date, right?" Ranma countered, evenly.

Haruka just blinked rapidly. "Are you sure you're actually a guy?" she asked, deadpan.

Ranma just rolled her eyes, but Haruka reached over, wrapping her arm around the shorter girl's shoulder. "We're almost home..." she said.

Ranma just nodded as the two turned onto the path leading to the house. Much to both of their surprise, as they walked up the path they saw the front door opening, letting out Haruka's mother.

The older woman looked at the scene, her daughter with her arm wrapped tightly around the upper torso of a short red-haired girl, and began to frown deeply. Marching forward quickly as Nodoka exited behind her rather puzzled, she walked up to Haruka angrily.

"Hi, Mom," Haruka said, smiling at her.

"'Hi Mom?'" her mother replied while glaring at the younger blonde, who backed up a bit and let Ranma go. "What are you doing with this… girl… when you are engaged, young lady?" she demanded.

At that comment, Ranma started giggling softly as Haruka sputtered. To add to it Setsuna came home right then and already could see how this would end and felt it would be better to prepare some calming tea in advance.

-CM-

"You sure you're alright, Mom?" Haruka asked, standing beside the coach that they moved the older woman to after her fainting spell when Ranma turned back into a boy, as she shakily took the cup of tea that Setsuna had made from Haruka's hands.

"I'm fine, Haruka-chan..." her mother said. "It's just… a lot to take in, that's all."

Inwardly, she was of two minds about what she had seen in the past hour. She knew that some very odd things existed in Tokyo proper. Having seen the news, it would be impossible to not know that; but now she learned that her daughter was engaged to one. Still, the way Haruka was looking at her so worriedly also allayed one of her fears that she'd had ever since the girl had run away from home. Still, she had some questions to ask.

"I am going to have a VERY long talk with your father when he gets home," Mrs. Tenoh finally said, after sitting silent for a moment.

Haruka laughed. "Yeah, I thought he'd told you," she explained. "I'm sorry that you passed out like that, but people usually don't believe when Ranma just tells them about it."

The other just nodded, taking a sip of her cup of tea. She looked off into the distance, deep in thought. Initially, she'd found Ranma a rather rough, though still acceptable young man, but now she started to re-evaluate him, or her. She wanted to treat the person Haruka was currently with harshly, if only because, at least half the time, her daughter was still with another woman, which would be bad for the family image.

But then she stopped herself. Was that really being fair? She'd accepted Ranma originally because she'd thought that her daughter had finally 'seen the light,' and that was pretty well it.

"Haruka, I want to know something, and I want you to answer me truthfully," she finally said, coming out of her deep thoughts. The younger Tenoh jumped, as if startled, but then nodded. "How do you feel about Ranma?"

Haruka wanted to respond immediately with something, but she wasn't sure what to say. She let her mouth open and close a few times, then started slowly. "He's… very different," she finally said, and seeing her mother's raised eyebrow, continued. "It's hard to explain. I mean, I just... Mom, let's say he's the only man who truely understands me AND the only man I want to spend my life with."

Her mother was about to say something, but Haruka continued before she could. "What I mean... other men just don't excite me. Just him... That he also turns into a hot woman is a big bonus as well... You know... very good for a healthy relationship."

"I see..." her mother said, looking mildly troubled. 'Damn,' she thought, 'My daughter is really totally in love with him.' "That's all I wanted to know, though I'm going to have to talk to Ranma at some point... Now, how about you tell me what's been going on with you since I last visited?"

-CM-

"So that means our first try was a failure?" the Professor asked.

"Yes, our Daimon encountered, as you predicted, the opposition," Kaolinite reported.

He turned around and in the darkness, she could see a big smile under the reflecting glasses. She found that surprising, considering the news. "Even better... Our master has a score to settle as well..." he laughed.

END

Beta-read by Tribun.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36: "I want you - I get you!"

Kasumi Tendo smiled to herself as she studied her reflection in the mirror. She was getting everything ready now for the day ahead. She felt a little guilty that she would try to get Ranma take part of this, but reassured herself that should everything go right, none of them would have any reason to feel guilty.

Looking herself over, the brown haired girl combed her fingers through her freshly washed hair again, and thought of the nice dress that Unazuki had helped her pick out and was now in a bag. The other girl didn't know why Kasumi wanted to take this dress with her to school, but she'd had a lot of fun helping her out.

Looking to the side of the table, Kasumi blushed at what was sitting there. An item that she'd have to bring with her as well, if only so that Tofu could decide for himself what to do when she finally broke through his shyness. She blushed fiercely at the thought of that, but shook it off, firming her resolve. She had left home in order to get what she wanted, and she wasn't going to stop now… unless, of course, Tofu decided he wanted her to, but…

Frowning worriedly, Kasumi checked herself for the last time, before going to the breakfast table.

-CM-

"Is everything in place, Bidet?" asked a hunched-over figure who was standing in front of a Mirror, with her back turned to her and holding a staff with an ornate crystal furnished at the top of the staff glinting eerily with only the sliver of lights coming from the doorway.

"May I speak with the Queen, Zirconia?" asked the one who was named Bidet in return.

Zirconia slowly turned facing Bidet, her face still shrouded in shadows. "You can speak with her when I say you can!" she yelled as she thrust out her staff and a black bolt of energy jolted out from the crystal on top of her staff and hit Bidet in the chest, throwing the old woman backward.

"Need I remind you that I put you into your current position? I can remove you and have another one to replace you just as easily. Did I make myself clear?" Zirconia's face twisted into an evil smile thoroughly enjoying the sight of the old woman struggling to get back on to her feet. True, Bidet was a little backstabber, but she was a useful backstabber.

"There is...There is," huffed Bidet as she clutched her chest, using her cane to prop herself up slowly, "...one outstanding issue... we currently...do not have someone... in Japan," continued Bidet as she slowly restabilized herself with her staff.

"We could send Khu Long's great granddaughter, she's too stupid and spoiled to understand what we are doing, all she wants is that stupid outsider male. I say we entertain her, but hold off for the moment. I'd like to see her humiliated a little more before we let her lose," Zirconia answered, with a menacing cackle.

"It will be done as you say" Bidet said through gritted teeth, as she slowly backed away. Once she was out of the room she turned and walked off.

-CM-

Ranma walked from his music class, astounded a little at how much progress he was making with the violin. Sure, he knew that it was mostly hand-eye coordination, but the rate he was learning at was even for him a little too fast. The comment from his music teacher that he probably always had had a hidden talent for it didn't help either.

Stepping into the elevator that would bring him to the floor for next class, he hit the button and the lift started moving rapidly. To his annoyance, it stopped once, but he blinked as he saw who stepped on.

"Kasumi?" he asked, surprised to have met her in the same place, two weeks in a row.

"Ranma-kun," Kasumi said, smiling. "You're just the person I wanted to see." For some reason, the look on her face when she said that made the pigtailed martial artist very nervous.

-CM-

Ranma was surprised. No, he was much more than that, he was shocked. Kasumi had just explained a plan worthy of Shampoo or Cologne, and worse, he was HELPING her in it. He already had prepared everything according to Kasumi's plan and now was waiting for her to return from whatever she needed for her own preparation.

He wanted to help Kasumi, especially given all of the things she'd done for him in the past, but this felt a bit like betraying the doc, whom he owed almost as much. His mind had been chasing itself around in little circles about this for the past few minutes, and nothing had been resolved.

"I'm back, Ranma-kun."

Ranma jumped as he heard the voice, having not heard Kasumi coming. She was one of the very few people who could do that. He'd never learned how exactly she was doing it, probably it was her way to put the training her father gave her to good use while fitting with her more passive personality.

As he finished turning, his mouth dropped. "K-Kasumi?" he asked, stuttering a bit.

"Oh, that isn't funny, Ranma-kun," she chastised him. "You shouldn't make fun of Tofu-sensei's problem like that."

"I'm not!" Ranma objected. "You just look… different..." he finished. He was about to say that she looked cute, but since the last time he'd said that had resulted in most of Ukyo's problems, he kept quiet.

"Well, yes. I am wearing something I selected specially for this occassion. Do you think Tofu-sensei will like it?" she asked, spinning around to reveal her knee-length skirt and well fitted white blouse.

"Um, yeah," Ranma said, suddenly reminded of what Kasumi had asked him to do. "You… still want to go through with this?"

Kasumi nodded, seeming to be radiating confidence. "I'm sure."

Ranma sighed, Kasumi seemed far more confident than in the past. "Well, hope the doc doesn't kill me," he mumbled. "Alright, let's do it."

"Thank you, Ranma!" she exclaimed, and then leaned forward, grabbing him in a tight hug. His pigtail stood on end for a moment and he waved his arms around frantically. This arm waving only got worse when he saw someone behind Kasumi.

'I'm doomed...' he thought, as Haruka walked up to the two. Oddly enough, though, the blonde didn't pull a hyper-dimensional weapon of pain out of nowhere, she just rose one eyebrow. Within about five seconds, Kasumi had pulled away from Ranma, seeing that he'd gone board-stiff and started shaking. Instantly after getting let go, Ranma started babbling frantically.

"Haruka, it's not what yer thinking, really. This is Kasumi, she's Akane's older sister."

Haruka looked at him oddly for a moment, noting how his speech had slipped significantly, before turning to Kasumi. "You're Akane's sister? Nice to meet you."

Ranma stopped babbling and stood slightly shocked at how Haruka was acting. 'Why haven't I been hit yet?' he thought. Admittedly, Haruka hadn't raised a hand against him other than in sparring, but this was a pretty clear cut case according to all he knew.

Kasumi bowed to the blonde, and looked the newcomer over for a moment. She was puzzled as to why Ranma would act so oddly when one of his friends showed up, until she noticed that the 'boy' in front of her had no Adam's apple.

"Nice to meet you as well," she said. "Ranma, do you mind making introductions?"

Ranma didn't move or speak for a moment, before snapping out of it. "Um, yeah," he said, unsteadily, finally accepting that Haruka had actually observed the situation without jumping to the worst possible conclusion. He slowly started to smile, thanking whatever Kami had decided to stop playing games with him since he got to this district, and spoke. "This is Haruka, we're living at the same place, and, well, engaged. This time it was our decision."

"Oh, you're Haruka." Kasumi said, surprised. "Ranma told me about you."

"Yeah, he's told me a bit about you too," Haruka said, before her watch beeped. "Crap, I gotta get to next class," she said, looking at Ranma worriedly but noticing that he was starting to act more normal now. "I'll see you after school, okay Ranma?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding. "See you then."

After Haruka had left the area, Kasumi looked at Ranma. "I'm sorry about hugging you like that. I just wasn't thinking…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "We'll start it at lunch hour, right?" she asked, hopefully.

"Yeah, don't worry. Everything will go according to plan," Ranma replied. Kasumi merely nodded, and then left with a spring in her step.

-CM-

"Hey, doc!" Ono Tofu turned as he heard the call from down the hall, seeing Ranma running towards him with a bunch of books under one arm.

"Ranma?" he asked, surprised to see the younger boy, especially since lunch hour normally would mean Ranma being busy with eating. "Is there something wrong?"

"Nah," Ranma waved it off. "Just wanted to ask you some questions. I've got a bunch of biology stuff in science class that I just don't get."

"I see." Tofu said, nodding. He found it odd that Ranma was coming to him for help, especially since most biology related subjects were actually well studied by martial artists, but he didn't mind helping. "I'd be glad to help you out for the remainder of the lunch hour."

"Thanks." Ranma said, gratefully. "There's a classroom down on the third level that's free."

"That'll be fine." Tofu said. "Let's pass the Cafeteria first though, alright?"

Ranma nodded, and the two started to walk.

Their travel took place mostly in silence until after Tofu had gotten his lunch, the older man surprised that the younger hadn't gotten anything. A few minutes later, though, Ranma surprised him by asking him something. "Doc, if I knew a way to get you over your Kasumi problem, would you want it?" he asked, looking away slightly.

Tofu stopped, his glasses fogging up for a moment before he blinked the clouds away with a mighty effort. "Why are you asking me about that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I'm just curious," Ranma said. "I've just gotten access to some of the old freak's techniques, and I think a certain one could help." He was of course lying through his teeth, but thankfully Tofu was too busy fighting off his usual haze to care.

"To answer your question," he said, turning left only to plow into a brick wall, "Being able to hear K… Ka… her name without… well, you know… I would give almost anything for it," he sighed.

"Good to hear..." Ranma said, suddenly sounding a lot happier for some reason. "And doc, sorry 'bout this."

Tofu was about to ask him what he was sorry about, when he noticed, too late, Ranma going for one of his paralysis pressure points. He started working the Chi based counter for the point almost immediately, but Ranma had already scooped him up in his arms and started running. By the time Tofu had reversed the point's effects enough to ask what in the world the boy was doing, he was already being pushed through a door into a slightly dark classroom. The door slammed behind him, and he fell against it with a thump, hearing it click as the lock was turned.

"What in the world…?" he asked, before twitching his hand to be sure he could move it, and reaching to flick on the room's lights.

As they came up, he said one thing. "K-K-Kasumi, what a coincidence meeting you here, of all places!"

-CM-

Shampoo checked the last of the supplies in her backpack for the second time, comparing them to a carefully made list and nodded in satisfaction. She was ready, and the rest of the hunting party that had been assembled was also doing final checks of their equipment. Luckily for her, the high council had accepted her explanation for her failure and she had regained at least some of her face with the tribe, or she wouldn't be able to mount the operation she was preparing.

Stepping out of the small house she had been assigned in the village -one much smaller that her previous one thus showing her reduced status- she looked over the rest of the group, but scowled when she saw the elder that lead it. Though she'd been given another chance, it hadn't been with total freedom, and she was just a part of someone else's group.

Elder Bidet was probably the most conservative of the elders, making her great-grandmother look like a radical progressive. That, and Bidet had always been not all too keen on her family. Though she did not want to say it aloud, she had a suspicion that the elder was responsible for causing her grandfather and father to leave the tribe and live in a city. Her father had just said he couldn't any longer live 'under the old crow's eye' after the premature death of his wife.

"Shampoo, you are not ready for the final hunt right now and the hunt is delayed for now," Elder Bidet stated, stomping her staff down on the ground.

"But... elder." The purple haired girl whined, while the others in the group looked disappointed.

"Everything is not yet in place for the hunt, we do not yet know where your husband is right now. We need more information before we go," Bidet cut Shampoo out completely. In truth, she did not know why they would even oblige this intrepid stupid girl's request in the first place. She was the elder after all, however the fact that she had to answer to Zirconia's whims irked her to no end.

"Keep on training, you need to subdue your husband," Bidet said as she nodded signaling the end of the conversation and walked away from Shampoo's hut.

-CM-

"Alright, how about we try this again?" Dr. Osamu Taikuchi rubbed the bridge of his nose below his glasses, and flipped over another card. "Mr. Kuno, tell me what you see."

Tatewaki Kuno sighed, looking at the doctor in clear annoyance. "We have traveled this ground before. Tis obviously a picture of the beauteous Akane Tendo!"

Osamu sighed, leaning his head forward to bang into the table. "Yes, right…" he muttered.

This case was, quite possibly, the most disturbing thing he'd ever had to deal with in his life. Every time he'd asked the boy to identify images from random patterns, they had something to do with either Akane Tendo, a girl with bright red hair in a pigtail, Kendo, or a foul sorcerer of some sort. It was clear that it had been a good thing to have him off the streets.

The other issue was none of the other doctors wanted to take this case, citing his mother as an excuse. It was a good thing he'd studied abroad for the most part and could look at this patient with an unbiased eye, from this patient's prognosis. He had to say it would not bode well for Tatewaki.

"Well, Mr. Kuno… I believe that I've come to a final conclusion in regards to your treatment," he finally said, after taking several deep breaths to keep himself from exploding.

"You have finally come to the conclusion that I, the scion of the Kuno line, am of fine mental stock, correct?" the boy asked, puffing his chest out arrogantly, despite the straight jacket that they had put him in when he'd attempted to assault one of the orderlies who just happened to have blue-black hair.

"No, Mr. Kuno..." Osamu said, simply. "I've come to the conclusion that you have an unhealthy and obsessive fixation on the feudal era, Akane Tendo, and this… pigtailed girl of yours. Furthermore, this fixation is a danger to anyone around you who is REMOTELY similar to either of them."

As Kuno's face fell in disappointment, the frustrated doctor took far more delight in his next statement than he really should. "Therefore, combined with all the other stuff in your file, I happily come to the decision that you need to be put into the high-security wing!"

He then turned, knocked on the door to Tatewaki's holding cell and walked off into the complex, ignoring the shouts of outrage that followed him.

-CM-

Haruka stuck several books into her storage locker, shutting the door and twisting its combination lock expertly in order to ensure that it was locked. School was finally over. As she turned around, slipping the shoulders of her brown jacket into place over her white shirt, she saw a brown-haired woman coming towards her, one of the teachers walking next to her.

"Haruka-San!" the woman called, stopping the blonde as she started to turn away.

"Yes, Kasumi-san?" she asked, politely, recognizing the woman from earlier that day.

"Have you seen Ranma-kun around?" Kasumi asked, while the eyes of the man who was walking next to her narrowed.

Haruka shrugged. "Sorry, Kasumi, he has already left, said something about an errand," she explained, apologetically. There was no need to explain that it was for their upcoming trip. "Why, is something the matter? Is he in trouble?"

Kasumi shook her head. "No, nothing is wrong, but can you tell him that Tofu and I want to talk to him tomorrow?" she asked.

"Sadly, no. We have some business out of town and won't be back until Friday. Is there anything I can convey to him until then?" she asked, wondering what Ranma now had done.

"Please give him our thanks and tell him he is not in trouble. We just want to speak with him in person once he is back," Kasumi said, cheerfully, before waving and walking away.

Haruka shrugged, and started to head home. As she did so, she once again thought over what had happened recently. She did this a lot while she had some alone time, since it helped keep her grounded against the strange stuff that had been happening lately, so she wasn't that annoyed that Ranma had apparently split at lunch.

This time, though, she had something slightly unsettling to think over.

The destruction of the entire planet was a pretty good motive for taking a few lives, if there ever WAS a good motive for doing that. She grimaced, as the thought left a bad taste in her mouth, and re-affirmed her desire for both of them to go through training to stop themselves from having to kill another human being. She wanted to use her powers to do good, not to become like the ones they were fighting against.

They were the good guys, and they'd have to work hard on staying that way.

END

Beta-read by Tribun.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37: A Time for Contemplation...

Cologne perched on top of Haruka's backpack as they slowly trekked up the mountain to find a more suitable place to train while the sun was already low on the horizon, bathing everything into an orange light. Haruka was complaining quite loudly about her current predicament of having to carry her pack and Cologne.

However, Cologne just tuned her out completely and contemplated her current situation. One of the things she missed the most about the Amazon tribe was the sound of nature, the clean crisp air and the quietness that it brought. Being her age and having lived in such interesting times in terms of Amazon history, she appreciated whatever respite she had gotten over the years.

She looked over from Haruka to Ranma assessing her current situation trying to formulate the best way to teach these two the technique required to see the heart crystals. Also on her mind was, how exactly her great-granddaughter had gone wrong with capturing Ranma, while Haruka had captured his heart without much effort. During the last few years that she had been in Japan, it had taught her much about humility and a growing respect for the opposite sex, mostly because of the pig-tailed martial artist who was walking ahead.

She didn't know what had possessed the council to see her as an outcast of all people. She had done so much for the tribe, her daughter had been instrumental in fending off the Musk invasion a few years back. She had crippled the Musk significantly to the point that they could not attack anymore... although that had come at the expense of her own life.

It had happened in a surprise attack and when they'd found her body, they'd barely been able to identify her. Shampoo's father had looked ready to die as well when seeing the body, while her great-granddaughter's eyes lost their sparkle. Shampoo had never been the same after that day.

She let out a long sigh, as she remembered the argument that had made her so many enemies. She had proposed not to press the advantage, which was readily accepted by the majority of the elder council members but had made her many enemies with the younger members -who wanted to conquer the Musk and make them subservient to the tribe- as well as some of the most conservative elders, who saw her as too progressive. At the time, it could have gone either way, however, she knew that much of the Musk offensive forces are not their best warriors; they take the most talented and put them back to defend while the lesser skilled go on the offense. That was after all how the Musk tested their young and she'd thought everyone knew that.

The state of which she wanted to maintain was that of peace and not of constant warfare. This view was not shared with much of the tribe, however.

Not long after that, she kicked Happossai out in frustration and Setsuna had stopped coming by altogether. Her only confidante throughout the years had stopped talking with her. It just brewed her bitterness with outsiders. She was dumb to believe that they had abandoned her. She had lost her daughter, her husband and her best friend in a matter of weeks. Setsuna told her that it was her own doing, but at the time she had refused to believe her whatsoever.

To top things off, her son-in-law had been driven away by another elder only a short time later, leaving Shampoo parentless and her with the burden of raising her. It had started a deep feud between her and Elder Bidet that was still very alive. She'd never forgot the pressure and hurtful words that Bidet had used against her son-in-law and his hurt look when it was clear to him that his daughter couldn't come with him. She hadn't seen him since and wondered how he was doing.

Having to raise Shampoo as well had significantly reduced her time for tribe affairs, obviously what Bidet had intended besides the emotional pain she'd cause her. She wondered if that old crow was behind her current situation; she wouldn't put her above it.

She then looked ahead and saw a small clearing next to a stream that was ideal to set up camp. She jumped down and tapped her staff. Haruka slumped down on to the ground, tired.

A thick whack echoed through the wood, and then followed by a yelp of pain from Haruka. "No slouching! Start setting up camp"

"Grouchy old ghoul," Haruka mumbled under her breath.

Cologne retaliated swiftly with her cane hitting the blonde on the head, "Less complaining, more setting up camp!"

Ranma just snickered, finding it funny that it for a change wasn't him who got whacked, to which Haruka just threw him a glare. If looks could kill, then Ranma would have been eradicated on the spot by it.

-CM-

Setsuna walked down the street, her head full of thoughts and plans for the next few days or weeks how to steer through what probably was about to come. She'd spent the last week pre-occupied with her attempts to figure out how to deal with Ranma and Haruka, and now that she had discovered that the situation was, at least temporarily, nothing to worry about, her mind was much clearer.

Of course, she also cursed Ranma for making her come up with dozens of arguments for why the heart crystals needed to be inspected, and then just agreeing to do it almost instantly. Much of her skill over the years had been in trying to predict future events, even without the gates, and the new Neptunian Senshi seemed to confound her every time she tried it.

The chaotic aura surrounding him was not dangerous in itself, but it made any kind of precognition or surveillance magic useless when aimed at him or someone very close to him. Funny enough, that did not hamper his own precognitive powers, something that made Setsuna a little envious.

Haruka's reaction had been more predictable, and right now she and Ranma were busy with trying to find a way to deal with the threat without having to sacrifice someone's life. Personally, she wouldn't mind that one bit, and with how things had been going lately she began to think it was possible.

As she thought this, a small smile began to appear on the face of the guardian of time, and she pushed the front door of her home open. "I'm home," she announced calmly, though she was surprised not to hear Nodoka's returning "Welcome home."

In the comfort of her own home, her smile turned absolutely feral with a glint of mischief dancing in her ruby eyes as she remembered what she did to Ranma.

-CM-

Kasumi looked out the window of the Crown onto the sunset over Tokyo, her hand idly twirling the straw in her milk shake. She was currently taking a short break, since business was low with only twenty minutes before closing time.

What happened in that classroom had changed her perspective on life, although Tofu was able to break into his soberness but it wasn't until she was on her knees and started to take off his pants that he was able to break out. She didn't know if she would be able to continue once it get to that point.

When Tofu's stupor was broken, she realized how much she was going to do to get through to him. She did not know whether or not it was good or bad that she was willing to give him her virginity to break him out. It had probably a good thing that he'd managed to make her stop once his head had cleared up and asked her if she really wanted to give something so important away just like that. After all it was irreplaceable.

She let out a long drown out sigh.

Before that incident, she was certain that she would do anything for Tofu, because she loved him. Now, she just did not know anymore. He'd openly asked her if she was really sure about it. To be honest, she did not know that much about Tofu. Until now, she only thought that Tofu was cute. She realized that she knew absolutely nothing about Tofu, other than he was a doctor. What was he like? What did he like? She had't had not any opportunities to talk to him whatsoever. The only interaction she had with him was she talking at him but not with him. She did not know whether that was a basis enough to start a relationship.

Good thing that he seemed to think so as well and had asked if she'd be willing to actually find out what kind of man he was by the old-fashioned way; meaning they should for now just learn about each other, test the waters and then should decide if they want to go any further. At least one thing she now already knew; he was quite wise for a man of his age.

She looked up at the clock. Seeing that her break was over, she finished off the last of her shake and went back into the kitchen.

-CM-

"DAMN IT SETSUNA!" Ranma let out a cry of frustration as he frantically tried to find his sleeping bag. All he found in his bag when he'd looked for it were some huge boulders and a note that read, _"I took your sleeping bag and tent, have fun with Haruka. ~S"_

Haruka rushed to Ranma's camp site as she heard the cry of frustration from Ranma. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Ranma grumbled and handed over the note by Setsuna, A cheshire grin split on to Haruka's face. "So you would either have to sleep with me or sleep with the old ghoul right?"

Cologne jumped out from behind a tree and smacked Haruka with her cane.

"Ow," Haruka rubbed the back of her head, "Where is she hiding anyways?"

"Oh, she just has very sensitive hearing, I think it has to do with her how much she can extend her chi," Ranma responded, trying to divert the subject as much as possible.

Haruka turned to him with a look of expectation. "So would you be sleeping with me or Cologne?"

Ranma just grumbled a little bit with a pout.

Haruka put her hand splayed out around her ear and leaned in. "I didn't hear you," she said in a sing-song voice.

"I said, you!" Ranma said, still pouting.

Haruka pecked his already puckered lips, "Was that so hard to say?"

Ranma would have liked to answer 'no', but his pride stopped him. Even though the choice had been easy, as the thought of sleeping in a tent with Colonge had almost made him lose his lunch, he'd never admit so.

-CM-

The next day saw an interesting scene.

"Aw, they're so cute!" Usagi exclaimed, cuddling a tiny kitten to her cheek as Mamoru stood behind her.

"I thought you'd like them," he said, a small smile on his lips.

Earlier in the morning he'd found the girl sitting despondently on a bench, apparently having been so depressed that she'd skipped school. Usagi was late for class a lot of the time, but she was, if not a good student, at least a reasonably determined one after she woke up, so he'd immediately gotten concerned when he'd seen her.

It had seemed that the loss of her transformation device had hit her very hard, so unable to think of anything else to do to help, he had taken her here, to an old abandoned house, to help cheer her up. One of the things he did know after all was, that Usagi had a weakness for cute animals.

"A lot of the stray cats in the neighborhood come here, and these kittens were just born recently," he explained.

"I do like them already!" Usagi squealed, happily petting one of the little creatures, who sat comfortably in her lap. "But, you said these are stray cats?"

"Yeah," Mamoru responded. "But someone always comes around and feeds them, so they know to stay here, and a lot of them get adopted. However, the building is set to be torn down soon, so this propably will be the last batch before it is gone."

Usagi nodded, going back to playing with the kittens, and a plan began to form in her brain to do some good, even without her brooch. perhaps she could find a way to help these kittens find someone to care for them.

After all, that couldn't be too hard, right?

-CM-

"No!" Cologne yelled as her cane swung down to crack hard against Haruka's knees, "Your form is too loose, you need to tighten up your legs. And stop looking at Ranma, this is not the meat counter."

After they had woken up, Cologne had told them to meet her by the river, which they followed upstream to see a grand waterfall. Cologne instructed them to have their back against the waterfall and meditate. This would allow them to focus their chi more, as meditation would help one to be more aware of their chi.

Being under the waterfall of rushing cold water of course triggered Ranma's curse. It was serving as very ample distraction for Haruka who was currently drooling at Ranma's well-formed breasts which were exposed since Ranma was wearing his usual silk clothing. The silk clothing stuck to Ranma's breasts like a second skin and made her taut nipples -thanks to the cold water- stood out more than usual.

Ranma's meditative form made her look so serene and at peace, it just drove Haruka crazy with need. She wanted to corrupt that serenity and innocence, just to see her writhing under her as she grind their pussies together. They'd been too tired for anything last night, so her mind already was at next night. Her imagination ran wild with possibilities and she competely ignored the smacking of Cologne's cane against her scalp. On the outside, a line of saliva was running down the side of her mouth as her glazed eyes looked toward Ranma.

Cologne sighed and purposely shoved Haruka into the water in front, the current rushed and carried her down by the undertow. It was then that Haruka finally broke out of her Ranma induced stupor and flailed in the water.

"Why did you do that?" Haruka yelled as she swam back to her rock that she was on previously.

"You weren't concentrating on your own chi, and you weren't responding to anything I did, so this is how I got your attention." Cologne jumped to Haruka and then forced her down in front of the waterfall. "Let's try this again, I need you to concentrate on your chi inside of you, feel the current inside you like the current running outside you."

-CM-

When the girls minus Usagi met at the shrine in the afternoon, the atmosphere was a little tense.

Rei by now had recovered from what had happened during the monster attack, but her mood had taken a nosedive in the process. Everyone gave her lots of space, as her already infamous temper had been cranked up to eleven. It had become so bad, her grandfather had forced her to do lots of meditation, and that exactly was what she was doing right now, while the others talked.

The other girls were a mixed bag. Minako was still horribly embarrassed how easily that monster had defeated them, while Makoto tried to not think of it and instead mentally prepared for her date on Saturday. Ami just tried to make sense of what had happened recently. The two moon cats didn't dare to say anything for now, waiting for someone else to break the ice.

Minako finally had enough of the silence. "Is it me, or is everything going down the drain very fast? First we botch a rescue, then Rei nearly gets killed and we had to get bailed out by Mamoru and two new Senshi, Usagi can't transform any longer and Rei has told us of visions of the end of the world... Man, that stinks!"

It was seldom to see usually cheerful Minako being frustrated. "Speaking of Usagi, where is she?" Artemis wondered, looking around.

"She wasn't at school today. Not that I can blame her. She's become really depressed after what happened to her brooch," Makoto said, she and Ami having already wondered where their leader was.

Luna then felt all eyes on her. "I tried to keep an eye on her, but lost her this morning. She left the house, but didn't return," she admitted. "I worry for her. She already had nightmares and is unable to sleep. I never knew that being Sailor Moon has become so important to her."

"Have you even looked at her life?" Ami couldn't any longer keep it in. "Before she became Sailor Moon, she'd been a nobody. Then suddenly she is able to make a difference. And now she's back to being a nobody. No wonder she's depressed."

"There's nothing we can do right now," Rei said, while still sitting in lotus position with her eyes closed. "We also have bigger problems at the moment." It sounded incredibly harsh, but they knew that it was Rei's way to deal with what had happened to her. They knew she did care for Usagi.

Artemis decided to intervene before bad words would fly. "We don't yet know what to make of your vision of destruction, or if it has anything to do with that attack. Ami, what about the remains of that crystal egg?"

Ami looked at her computer. "From the remains I didn't get too much, but it was no purely magical product, there was quite some scientific work in that thing. The perfect synthesis of science and magic... We can be glad that we got bailed out."

"Concerning that... Are you really sure about that Ranma? I've seen a lot, but someone changing gender with water temperature?" Makoto asked, sceptical. "I can't imagine Sailor Neptune being a boy."

Everyone knew that it sounded far-fetched. They'd seen Sailor Neptune and the big breasts and feminine figure loudly screamed 'GIRL'. It was hard to imagine that this feminine girl was supposed to be a boy who changed gender, especially after Ami had shown them a picture of him. It was just too weird, even for them, who'd seen a lot of strange stuff during their time as Senshi.

"Imagine changing gender like that..." Minako shuddered at the idea of her breasts going flat and growing male genitals. "I think he should have gone bonkers from that."

Luna sighed, another discussion derailed. "Why don't you just ask him? Wait until Ami had a chance to ask him on Friday and then we can stop guessing."

This seemed to be the best idea so far. Right then they saw Usagi running up the stairs to the temple in a surprisingly good mood. It seemed that she was very excited about something and it had temporarily dispelled her depression over her damaged brooch.

They wondered what it could be.

-CM-

Tatewaki Kuno was in hell. No, hell would have been a better choice than having to face his own demons inside a white four-poster cloistered room. He did not have the room to practice his kata nor does he have the heart to do so. During the first few hours he'd tried to, but it was just too cramped for him to do any of his katas.

To be honest, he had been trying to get back to the moment of delusion that he was so familiar with for so many years. However, he could not anymore, and he did not know, why. He had found solace from the pain in his madness. He saw his current clarity as a curse that he wished to be relieved of.

He looked up at the white ceiling with much regret in his eyes. However, he did not know what exactly he should do with his current predicament. In all honesty, he did not want to know the truth. He wanted to live in lies and delusions rather than facts and reality.

The memory of his mother, of how much she had grown more dormant over the years, flashed through his mind's eye. The realization that his mother had committed suicide was an alien thought to him. He had wondered why she had.

"No, no, NOOO!" he screamed, when the thought assaulted him.

As he bashed his head into the ground repeatedly, thoughts of self-blame and self-doubts started to filter through his head. The feelings of abandonment and loneliness that he had shirked in his madness came back to him in waves of distress.

The door to his room burst open with a doctor and his nurses. The nurses rushed to ping him down and the last thing he felt was the tiny prick of a needle in his arm as sweet unconsciousness claimed him much to his delight.

Little did he know that his dreams would not offer any escape.

-CM- Lemon Warning -CM-

Haruka felt damn cold that evening. Ranma obviously didn't care for being in cold water for hours, but for her it had been sheer torture after the first two hours. Also, while Ranma easily seemed to get what this was supposed to do, she still felt like failing the riddle of the Sphinx. As much as she was ahead of Ranma in things of everyday life, here he was ages ahead of her.

Right now however she didn't care. The whole day had been filled with either being in cold water, or doing stuff that made her muscles hurt. There was only a half an hour break for eating and doing the unmentionable behind a bush. Haruka now knew the value of proper bathroom facilities. Thankfully, she finally had been dismissed while the old woman wanted to speak with Ranma about fine-tuning his training -obviously giving up on teaching Haruka something she would be unable to learn without the basics that Ranma had.

She could only guess what sadism the old crone intended to fling at her tomorrow.

Once in the tent, she sighed in relief when finally getting out of her soaked clothes. Putting them away to dry, she welcomed their shared sleeping bag, but didn't feel like sleeping, despite having had a hard day. Her X-rated thoughts about Ranma that she had had during the day, and which had gotten her several scolding for distracting her, were again heating up and she knew she'd probably never be able to sleep if she wouldn't get some release.

'Let's see if I can manage to get Ranma to loosen up. He has to get over his inhibition sooner or later. Better sooner...' she thought, while slipping into the sleeping bag without putting on any undergarments, then waited.

She didn't feel guilty in the slightest for doing this. She by now had a pretty good picture how these girls back in Nerima had projected their own faults and insecurities on him, so that they could bully around him and wouldn't have to deal with it. End result: Ranma had become afraid of intimate contact. Not completely of course, as the memorable scene on the front lawn had proven, but enough that he'd expect something bad to happen. For sexual activity that was a true mood killer.

So she would actually help him, even though at the beginning he'd be uncomfortable. After all, he would marry her in the foreseeable future, and therefore she wanted him to be fit to fulfill his part of the involved activities as well. Also she was plain outright unhappy at how he was missing one very important part of life right now.

She didn't have to wait for too long before Ranma entered the tent, still a girl. No wonder, since she was still wearing her soaked clothes. She licked her lips, as this was even better and it was another thing she had to teach Ranma about, as she surely would not limit herself to classic male-female.

"Ranma, unless you want me to sleep in a wet sleeping bag, get out of these things," she said. Seeing her being about to step back outside, she held her by the ankle. "Not outside."

"Uhm, Haruka?" Ranma asked, wondering if Haruka had just told her to strip in front of her.

"Look, you want to marry me in the near future, so we should both get used to this now. Also, remember that we hold no secrets when getting out of our gear," she reminded Ranma.

Ranma was a little unsure. Being naked for some seconds was one thing, being naked while being next to Haruka for longer than that was something different, especially as a girl. She started to blush, remembering how forward Haruka had been the last time something like that had happened.

Haruka sighed. "Look, I don't want to push you, but if you mean it serious with marrying me, we have to work on this better now than later... Hmmm, maybe it gives you some motivation to know I'm completely naked in this sleepling bag? I think it would be only fair for you to get a good look at me as well."

Ranma blushed when Haruka slowly unzipped the sleeping bag, while getting out of her wet clothes. All this seemed surreal to her. In spite of what they'd already done, she was still a little embarrassed to stip in front of her. One piece after the other got off until Ranma was completely bare and tried to not look at the naked Haruka.

"Ranma, please look," Haruka said.

Finally looking to the naked girl in front of her and again seeing her in her birthday suit, Ranma felt a sudden rise in her desire for Haruka; something that actually disturbed her a little. "You know... This should be easy for me, but it isn't."

Haruka had already guessed that, seeing how uncomfortable she looked. "It's not that I'll again try to do things too fast. After all I know why you can't relax when things go too far."

Ranma looked a little depressed that she couldn't give that to Haruka yet. "Thank them. Be glad you never met Shampoo..."

"I don't want to talk about them..." Haruka sat down next to Ranma, who flinched for a moment, before growing comfortable with her being this close. "After what happened last time, I guess that you have little experience with anything regarding sex?"

Ranma blushed again, that was an embarrassing topic. "No... How could I? First being always on the road and then life in Nerima made that pretty much impossible."

"I see..." Haruka put an arm around Ranma's shoulders. "Do you mastrubate?"

Ranma coughed and looked at Haruka, but saw that she wanted a honest answer. "Uhmm... yeah, at least as a guy. Perhaps the only sex thing I do. Started it while still on the road and did it in secret later..."

"And no action as a girl?" Haruka asked further, speculating his macho self-image could have stoped him from doing that.

Ranma took a deep breath. That was one of her more embarrassing experiences. "Two times... and I didn't get to finish both times. First time was a little after I got cursed and I was curious. When Pop found me, he beat me green and blue and lectured me to never do that again. As for the second time... That happened when I got locked as a girl by some jerk named Herb. I got so frustated that I did it and of course Akane caught me and lectured me for almost half an hour that I shouldn't do this."

Haruka raised an eyebrow, wondering why the girl had not resorted to violence. "There seems to be more to the last one."

"Yeah, after she was done, I simply asked if she therefore never does it. She became beet-red and left..." That had been a very unusual behaviour for the tomboy, Ranma still remembered.

Haruka had guessed that. Most people did it after all. "And you never climaxed as a girl?"

"Never... Closest I came to it was that day on the front lawn. Too bad we got interrupted..." Ranma really wished that they wouldn't have been interrupted, as she'd liked what Haruka did with her and the heat of the moment had distracted her.

"Well... then let me help you..." That said, she kissed Ranma, forceful and deep.

Ranma's eyes widened but she did nothing to stop Haruka, the talking having made her more comfortable with the idea. "Haruka... I..." she gasped, when Haruka let go of her lips. "N-now? What about doing things too fast?"

"There is no better time than the present and you seem to be quite willling." Seeing her start to freeze, she kissed her again, then moved to sit behind her. Her legs at each side, she held Ranma while pressing herself against her. "Please... Let me help you..."

Ranma had no idea what was going on, but Haruka's reassuring voice helped her to not panic. "Please be gentle..."

"Don't worry, I will..." Haruka whispered into her ear, while her experienced hands started to roam her body, until they cupped her breasts.

Ranma couldn't help but to moan when feeling Haruka expertedly manipulating the orbs. She...she actually liked this. Some months ago the thought alone would have been alien, but now Ranma started to enjoy Haruka's shameless manipulation of her female body. It felt GOOD!

Haruka saw that as well, and decided to now go further. Gently urging Ranma to open up her legs a little, one hand slowly moved south, until Haruka encountered the hair covering Ranma's private area. Not wanting to take things too far too soon, she carressed her sex. The reaction came at once.

"H-Haruka!... That... doesn't compare... to doing it myself... so ...better!" Ranma gasped.

Haruka smiled. That was exactly what she'd intended to achive and Ranma was now really into it. After long minutes of this, she decided to go for the jackpot. One finger slipped inside and Ranma started to tremble. It was clear that this was very new to Ranma, as several strokes were already enough to let her climax. Holding onto Ranma, she let the girl recover from this experience.

"Well... how is it to cum as a girl?" she finally asked her.

"Different... But not bad. Thanks..." Then Ranma looked guilty to her. "Oh Haruka... You got nothing out of that."

Haruka held up a hand. "Don't worry, I'm not greedy. After all, when you are ready, I know you'll repay me tenfold."

Ranma didn't want to imagine what kind of wild fantasies Haruka had, when it came to sex. What had just happened had almost blown her mind, and for Haruka this seemed to be something oridinary. So he didn't comment on it and they both slipped into the sleeping bag. She also didn't protest when Haruka spooned her, since it actually felt really nice to sleep like that.

END

Co-written and beta-read by Tribun.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38: A Princess in Distress

"This is not what I was looking for..." A little disappointed, the Daimon threw the heart crystal carelessly away into some corner, before facing her enemies. "Alright, who wants to be first? Or do you all want to try at once?"

It was amazing how fast things could go to hell.

They had been discussing cats. Usagi had tried to convince the girls to adopt one of the strays, but each of them had some arbitrary reason why they couldn't, much to Usagi's dismay. That, at least, had helped to get Usagi away from the depression she'd fallen into because of her broken broach. Suddenly, they'd heard a scream from the old ruin and in mere minutes they were confronted with a Daimon looking like a mock-hybrid between a woman and a purple cat. The whole monster looked as if being made from jigsaw puzzles.

The reason for its presence was also quite clear, when they found a young girl -whom they'd found out to be the caretaker of the strays- lying crumpled on the ground. Clearly her heart crystal had been taken from her. The Senshis were determined to punish the monster for harming the innocent girl. The Daimon however wasn't too concerned about being confronted by four enraged Sailor Senshis.

"Me!" Sailor Mars responded to the open question, shooting off a fireball at the offending daemon. She seemed all too happy to have a chance venting her anger over being a victim herself some days ago.

The attack turned out to be a mistake.

The Daimon had no trouble, using her tail like a tennis racket and swatting the fireball right back into Mars's face. The girl had no time to react before it blew up and slammed her, now slightly singed, face into the wall. Dazed, she couldn't get up.

"Who's next?" the Daimon goaded.

Jupiter sprang into action without responding to the question asked, it was clear to her that this wouldn't be easy, and shot her lightning towards the monster without any comment. That proved to a mistake, as well. The Daimon had no trouble catching the lightning between her hands, gathering it into a ball.

With a superiority air and a condescending smirk thrown at Jupiter. "Have I happened to mention that I'm specifically made to counter magical attacks?"

Then she let lose the captured lightning, which hit Jupiter square in the stomach. The end result was the same as with Mars, she was slammed hard into the wall and was knocked out cold by the impact.

"Magic attacks, eh? Then try to counter this!" Venus shouted, now really pissed at how the monster had treated two of her friends.

Venus swung her love-me chain like a lasso and wrapped the Daimon tightly into it with the intention to make her unable to move. However, the Daimon only gave her an arrogant smirk, before all of a sudden breaking apart into something that looked like a pile of puzzle pieces, reforming again outside of the chain.

"I told you... It's useless to resist," she gloated, before grabbing the chain and yanking hard, slamming the surprised Venus head-first into another wall. "Looks like only you are left," she then said to Mercury.

Mercury on one hand didn't feel comfortable. While she by now was capable of attacking enemies, she still preferred to be in a supportive role in battle. On the other hand, the way this monster had hurt her friends had created a cold anger deep inside her - an anger that actually scared her a little as she hadn't thought of herself being capable of feeling. It was a sense of bloodthirstiness she had thought that she was too logical for.

It was a weird feeling of empowerment. One she grabbed on by instinct, this cold anger. She pushed it out of her body with a cry of fury, where it manifested into a ball of cold, which hit and instantly froze the Daimon solid. To make sure that this would do the trick, Mercury screamed again, while shattering the frozen monster with a kick.

However, it was a futile attempt when she watched helplessly as each jigsaw puzzle reformed itself piece by piece taunting her as well as demoralizing her as the last piece fit back into its original form.

"Tsk, tsk. You are a very naughty girl..." the Daimon mocked her, before kicking her hard into the stomach, making her bend over in pain. The Daimon laughed, watching her from the kick, but waited until she was done, before following up with a roundhouse kick into the chest, slamming Mercury into the wall, downing her.

The Daimon looked over her fallen enemies. "Now that this is out of the way, I'll make it slow and painful..." She stopped when hearing a gasp and looked to her left. "Ah, the peanut gallery!"

Usagi froze in fear. She'd been unable to do anything without access to her powers. Normally a battle would end with Sailor Moon using her power to destroy whatever monster they were facing. But since this was right now impossible, she'd been forced to watch her friends getting defeated hopelessly. It showed her painfully how much they by now depended on her.

It seemed that without Sailor Moon the others were incapable of defeating these enemies. She knew that this hadn't always been the case. Rei had defeated her first Youma without any trouble, and all four of them had on occasion defeated a monster on their own. But as soon as they were together in a bigger fight nowadays, it would fall to her to save the day. Usagi didn't know if the others just had gotten used to her monster-destroying power.

Right now she had something more important to worry about, like the daimon's tail that was wrapped around her neck, intent on cutting off her respiratory system.

"Didn't you know that walking around in old ruins is a health hazard?" the monster mocked, while tightening her grip. Suddenly her tail was cut, the puzzle pieces falling harmlessly to ground. "Hm...?"

Usagi took several deep breathes while watching Tuxedo Mask standing between her and the monster, sword in hand. He looked quite angry, very different from his usual modus operandi, downright ready to maim the monster. She'd never seen him like this; normally Mamoru held good control over his emotions -sometimes a little too much control for her taste.

"Don't touch her..." he threatened with venom in his voice, emphasizing each word.

The Daimon decided that he must be bluffing. "And how do you intend to do otherwise, Captain Top Hat?" she mocked; only to then catch the rose he threw at her. "A rose, should I lau-" Whatever she wanted to say got cut off when the rose blew up in a massive explosion, scattering the monster's separate puzzle pieces all over the place.

"Wow..." Usagi hadn't had any idea that Mamoru could do something like that. His powers always had been so low-key.

"Are you alright?" Tuxedo Mask asked. His attention for the moment shifted to her.

"Yes... just some bruises. Watch out, that thing can put itself back together! How can we battle something like that?"

Tuxedo Mask saw what she meant when the monster already put itself back together. He didn't hesitate to start attacking it. However, he quickly discovered that this monster was very different from all the others they'd faced. Regardless how powerful his attacks were, it just broke apart into puzzle pieces and put itself back together. He wondered how he could win against something like that.

Usagi watched the battle with growing unease. It seemed that whatever Tuxedo Mask was throwing against the monster, it recovered from it after second by just putting itself back together. That her future husband was showing powers bigger than what she'd suspected was only a side note for now. She didn't even notice that her damaged brooch had opened up on its own and that the Silver Crystal started to glow brighter the more distressed she became.

It finally became too much when the monster's claws didn't miss and drew blood. "STOP IT!" she screamed, while light exploded around her.

Both stopped fighting. Tuxedo Mask gasped when seeing that Usagi had turned into Princess Serenity, while the Daimon saw the sudden increase in energy -pure energy at that. Sure that this was a pure heart, she dashed to the girl... An action she was going to regret very fast. As soon as she was too close, the glowing crystal in front of the girl flared up and from the crescent moon on her forehead, a beam of white energy erupted and slammed into the Daimon, smashing her back and clean trough the wall. The beacon of light pulsed out, reviving and healing the injuries of the downed Sailor Scouts.

Everyone watched the glowing Serenity in awe, but something was wrong. She didn't move and didn't say a word either. Walking up to her, Tuxedo Mask noticed that as usual when Usagi became Serenity, her eyes had this distant look, but her body language clearly said that she was struggling with something. Something had to be wrong.

"What is wrong?" Mask asked, but didn't get an answer, apart from her distant eyes focusing on him, almost pleadingly. Holding her by the shoulders, he tried to snap her out of it. "Please talk to me. Please Se..."

He stopped himself at the last second. He'd been about to call her Serenity just because she was tapping into her powers. That however wasn't her name and he probably would get through by calling her by her actual name. "Usagi... USAGI! Please snap out of it!"

She blinked and suddenly the distant look in her eyes went away. To everyone's surprise, her princess dress left as well. She was still using the powers of Serenity, but apart from the hair ornaments and the crescent moon on her forehead, it just was Usagi in her street clothes. It looked so much more natural than her princess dress. It looked like Usagi wielding the powers of Serenity, and not Serenity taking her place.

"Mamoru...you really mean me?" she asked, insecure.

Only now he noticed that he'd regressed back to civilian, but didn't care and held her hands. "Yes... You Usagi, not Serenity, I believe in you."

Usagi gave him a smile of relief and the Silver Crystal left the brooch, floating up between them where it started to glow brighter. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the monster crawling back through the hole in the wall. "Girls, we can't let it interrupt us! Fight it smart so that it can't pull its trick on you! Remember that warning about bathtubs and electricity!"

They wondered for a second what he could mean, before it clicked.

The Daimon meanwhile was angry beyond belief. This had HURT! This little bitch had branded a crescent moon into her forehead and this energy was something she was not prepared for. Seeing that she was again confronted with her four opponents, she laughed. "This again?"

"Yes... but this time, we fight smart!" Mercury said, before again sending out another freezing orb, created from her determination, to defeat the monster. By now she had some understanding how to pull it off with her emotions.

The monster again was encased in ice, but this time a fire wave from Mars followed suit, at once melting the ice. The Daimon shrieked in protest. "Argh, now I'm soaked to the bone!"

"Exactly!" Venus called, before ensnaring her with her chain, but letting go of it.

"Very conductive!" Jupiter shouted, while letting lose lightning at the same time.

The Daimon was completely unprepared for this. Every bit of her was soaked and she also couldn't catch the lightning while wrapped in the chain. It hit her and instead of simply blowing her apart, it coursed through her wet body, causing each individual piece to combust. She screamed for several seconds, before the magic that kept her alive faded, reducing her to a burnt and wet jigsaw puzzle with a cat-motif. The crystal egg broke, the essence of the Daimon destroyed.

They however didn't care and quickly looked for the heart crystal and found it guarded by the two mooncats. It seemed they'd sneaked in and brought the crystal to safety. So it was easy to gently re-insert the crystal and give life back to the poor girl.

"Look!" Artemis called and everyone looked to where he was pointing with a paw.  
By now Usagi was back to completely normal and they saw what she held in her hands. In her left she held her brooch, which now looked like new, sparkling and no damage left. In her right she held an item they'd thought lost: the moon scepter. THE moon scepter, which once had been used by Queen Serenity and which thought to be loast Usagi after the final battle against Queen Beryl have returned back to its rightful owner. The Silver Crystal glowed and reattached itself to its home at the bottom of the crescent.

Usagi looked in awe at the two items. Entrusting the scepter temporarily to Mamoru, she hesitated for a second before holding up her brooch and chanting her transformation phrase.

Seconds later, Sailor Moon stood before them. Only Mamoru didn't feel only relief, but also a little guilt for looking. Usagi had transformed before his very eyes, and the transformation wasn't exactly good for modesty, considering that she was buck-naked for several seconds. Usagi however seemed to be oblivious to that. Not that she was bad to look at -for an almost 15 year old girl she was more developed than her age would suggest- but it was the principle of the thing.  
That, and Mamoru thanked all gods that his transformation was instantaneous, which he'd even checked in a mirror.

-CM-

Shampoo dodged an incoming attack from above by another Amazon who swung down at her head with a pair of hooked swords. There was murder in the other Amazon's eyes as she pulled her sword out of the training log.

Shampoo looked at Bidet fully expected her to stop the fight. This was supposed to be a non-weapon fight. However, Bidet just watched on nonchalantly.

Shampoo responded by pulling her trusty chuis out. She easily parried the side swings. The other Amazon quickly pulled her sword pair up and swung down again. Shampoo was barely able to cross her chuis to block the powerful overhead swing. Shampoo responded by flipping over her opponent and knocked her flat on her face when she smacked the back of her opponent's head down.

This gave Shampoo ample time to adjust her mindset to a weapon fight as opposed to a fist fight. One of her weakness when it came to martial art was that it took a while for her to adjust between styles, her understanding of the art wasn't as deep as most, but she could perform any given sets flawlessly.

As her opponent weaved an intricate pattern of sword play intent on dicing her, Shampoo was able to weave through it with parries and dodges without being cut once by the sharp instruments of pain. It was not so much as that she was good, but it was a matter she knows exactly the sword style that she was going up against.

Now, that she was within her opponent's defense, she thrust her chuis out with just enough force to hit the solar plexus of her opponent, sending her opponent backward off the log.

With her opponent defeated, she looked over at Bidet, who nodded approvingly and walked back toward her own house.

-CM-

Cologne looked up at the open sky. Her age was finally catching up to her. Seeing these two young ones picking up skills and techniques so easily, made her wonder if the tribe was right to be so exclusive with their training and if their reclusive conducts over the years had actually hurt the tribe than actually helped it.

Over the years, she had seen the changes in human culture, only one thing had remain consistent: the value of information and knowledge. She may have led the Amazon tribe down the wrong path, so many years ago.

Granted at the time, they had the most information, and the most knowledge in terms of martial arts. However, it was during a dark time in China's history, the westerners came in and reaped the land of everything. The government was completely inexistent. Fifty years of strife, turmoil, and uncertainty did a number on Amazonian culture, and cultivated a bitter xenophobia.

She saw the merit in doing what she had done, but to continue doing so after the crisis, that was when she may have misled the tribe. How many martial art prodigies had she missed training? How many martial arts styles the Amazons could have help developed during those times? China had always been a strong nation when it comes to new martial art techniques. Some may not have their roots in the oriental nation, but many had been influenced by Chinese based styles.

Now was not the time to think such things, she had two martial art prodigies sitting in front of her trying to learn what she had to offer. She looked over their chi flow; they were able to open up their chi much faster than anyone else she had ever seen before.

"Now, slowly guide your chi upward toward your eyes..."

-CM-

Kodachi looked over her work, from the more exotic plants to the heavily genetically modified plants she had cultivated in her greenhouse. It was one of the few quiet moments in her head that she had taken a comfort to. Her mind became so concentrated on her botanic tendering; she was not plagued by the voices that were usually chattering within her head.

She cross-pollinated her plants at first out of curiosity. However, now she did it to see how far she can exceed in mutating her plants to produce natural hormonal triggers into the pollens that would help her influence the mind of others.

"Soon, my darling, soon you and I will be together forever" she said as she stroked a picture of Ranma slowly.

END

Co-written with Tribun.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Clarity of Purpose

Everything had calmed down by now. The poor girl had been taken home by the others and now Usagi and Mamoru were sitting outside of the ruin, looking at the moon sceptre. The cats were sitting opposite of them, still impressed that Usagi had managed to call it back from wherever she'd lost it after that battle in the arctic months ago.

"That's very good. The sceptre acts as a focus and amplifier of your powers. After seeing how it improved you back then, it now should again serve you well," Luna commented. She would have never thought she'd see it again.

"I thought it would be some new kind of weapon..." Usagi commented, while looking at the familiar object. It felt strangely nostalgic to have it back.

"Don't be stupid. Queen Serenity managed to use it to banish the entire Dark Kingdom and re-incarnate all of the dead in the future. That alone should tell you its powers. You just never had the time to learn how to use it properly," Luna scolded her for the idea.

"After all, this is a royal artifact and it was specifically created to be combined with the Silver Crystal. Each on its own is powerful, but only combined they work as intended," Artemis added.

Usagi looked at the sceptre. "Uhhh, guess it's good then that I have it back?"

"Yes, it solves some of our problems. However, you better keep good care of it. Now that these two artifacts are combined, you still need to hold on to them if you want to use the powers of Serenity... at least until you can do so without their help. You can't put it away as easily as your brooch, so take good care of it," Artemis cautioned her.

"I don't think this is going to be a problem..." Usagi said and all of a sudden the sceptre vanished. "I finally learned how to access my pocket the same way as Ami puts away her computer and the others their wands."

"Impressive," Luna had to admit. Usagi had never before managed to access her subspace pocket. That also solved the problem of her forgetting her transformation item.

"Luna, Artemis? Can you please give us some privacy? Mamoru and I have to talk..." Usagi asked them and the mooncats left them alone so that they could finally talk about the topic that had bothered them the entire time.

Mamoru finally couldn't hold it in any longer. Usagi was right now so unlike her usual self, as if something was weighting on her. "Usagi, you scared me. When you turned into Serenity, it looked as if you struggled with something... And then the way you changed..."

Usagi sighed. "I know I can't hide it any longer... I hate turning into Serenity. Whenever I did before, it was as if this long-dead girl took over and I became a stranger in my own body. I never complained, felt it wasn't my place. This time I tried to reject her... didn't want her to take over. Thank you for calling me by my real name, it helped me to stay myself."

"I never knew..." Mamoru had to admit.

He always was himself, even when wearing the armour of Endymion, but maybe that was because of his memory loss during childhood, which had most likely also damaged Endymion and prevented him from taking over at such instances. Although... on the other hand during the first few weeks of his transformations, he hadn't been even aware of it. Had this been Endymion taking over?

"Mamoru... What when my powers grow stronger? Can I resist or will Serenity replace me completely? That scares me..." Usagi confessed, feeling the tears coming. She was afraid of a future where she was no longer herself.

Holding Usagi, Mamoru knew that Usagi's fear was substantiated. After all, everything pointed to the future Serenity (actually calling herself that) having little to nothing left of Usagi's original personality. The way Chibi-Usa spoke of her and pointed out the sharp difference to Usagi also was pointing to the same thing. Perhaps in the future, Serenity had really replaced Usagi.

"I won't let her..." Mamoru gently told her.

He didn't know what to do against it, but he didn't want that to happen. And then he remembered how different his own future self had acted; totally unlike him, although at the time he'd been too occupied to notice. Could it be that in the future Endymion did manage to take him over? A sobering thought.

Being taken over by a past personality was a bad foundation for a relationship. And now that he thought about it, apart from their past selves, he actually knew little about Usagi, and she knew little about him. Not to get him wrong, he did care a lot for her, but they hadn't yet had time for Usagi and Mamoru. It was either Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, or Serenity and Endymion.

No, he didn't want a relationship just because fate said so. Right now was not the time, but some day soon they could explore who Mamoru and Usagi are, ignoring Serenity and Endymion for the time being.

After all, that would be honest to both of them.

-CM-

"...Now push out your chi through the iris of your eyes, imagine threading a needle," Cologne finally said after she felt their eyes were enforced enough by the chi that was allocated there.

After a while, Ranma's and Haruka's eyes slowly opened their eyes, not from voluntary action but as an outlet for the chi to pass and expel outward. Their eyes were vacant of any emotions and intentions. However, their eyes were not their regular colours, the irises within the eyes were completely gone the only thing that was shown was the whites of their eyes. A ghostly glow expelled out of their vacant eye sockets, bathing the afternoon day with an unearthly glow around them.

Their chi-infused eyes taking in everything around them. Their trance state left their bodies into a full REM sleep cycle allowing them to replenish massive amount of their chi resources from the environs while it depleted through their eyes for this technique.

Cologne put herself into a trance and slowly applied the same technique, wanting to see their chi lines, mostly out of her own curiosity. What she saw shocked her. Ranma was barely using a fifth of his reserves for this technique while Haruka as expected was using over two thirds of hers to maintain this technique up.

"Remarkable..." Cologne muttered to herself.

She would have never thought they would be able to understand such a complex technique so quickly. A feeling, she hadn't felt for years slowly boiled within her: jealousy. She broke her trance, shook her head and gave out a long sigh. She suppressed the feeling and proceeded to start dinner leaving the two to experiment with this technique.

Ranma was in awe, as she had never thought she could see the world this vivid. She could see colours, chi, warmth, and auras so clearly now. The world looked so new, everything looked different, the depth of each individual colours were so pronounced, the chi radiating from everything are so strong. She could literally feel the warmth emitting from Haruka, who was meditating next to her. Her mind was so clear, there was not a care in her body.

No stress, no pressure, not anything, just a feeling relief and relaxation rushed through her entire body, cleansing herself completely of any preconceived stress. The feeling of absolute nirvana, if only temporarily, she now knew in what direction he needed to work toward.

'Wow, this must be all this stuff with connecting to your surroundings. I wonder if Kasumi can do this, considering how calm she always is...' she wondered, before looking towards Haruka.

She was reaching out, feeling the world around her like a blind person who'd just regained her eyesight trying to make sense of what is tangible with what is perceivable. Ranma's breath was taken away completely, she could see every part of her face, the faint scars of healed wounds, the little pucker up of her lips when she's concentrating, the slight tilt of her head when she's trying to understand something, and the tightening of her forhead when she's irritated. All of them were so pronounced while this technique was up.

Ranma felt a swell in her heart, and a release of absolute warmth throughout her entire body. What she saw next amazed her; a faint line connecting them together, it was faint but it pulsed ever so lightly with a faint reddish spectrum from her to Haruka. Haruka shuddered a little and a faint silly smile cracked on her otherwise stoic but frustrated expression.

Haruka reached out started to feel the world around her, as she did not know what to expect. The clarity she sought for so long was right in front of her. She could feel everything so acutely she could not help but reach out and try to feel around her surroundings. Her vision was not that clear, but she could feel everything around her; the gentle brush of wind blowing from the west, the soft nestling of the leaves vibrating the air that reached her gently caressing the top of her hands. Her hands touched the ground beneath, feeling the gentle rumbling of the earth, the movement of the lava underneath and she could feel the earth moving gently under her touch.

Her appreciation of earth and the world around her increased exponentially as she finally found a connection that made her give a damn about something, other than Ranma and biking. Until now she hadn't realized that she had been only going through the motion of fighting Youmas, because that is what Ranma wanted to do and that she never really had had a stake in it. Her heart hadn't been in it, nor had she cared as much as she wanted to protect Ranma. Now, she finally got a full taste of the majestic earth that she lived in. A sense of duty that finally grounded her other than Ranma, though Ranma had helped her realize what she had been missing for a while.

'Don't lose your head...' she scolded herself. 'Though this is great, never forget to stay with both feet firmly on the ground. Don't want to become some new age hippie.'

Cologne came back after a while, wanting to check out her pupils.

She found Ranma still sitting under the waterfall, her eyes darting from one place to another trying to gather everything in through her eyes. While Haruka found her way on to land, feeling and touching the world around her. It was astonishing how much they were opposite and yet so much of what they do was the same.

Ranma was by nature an extrovert, however, after years of seclusion, metal abuse and martial arts training he had adopted so many natures of an introvert. Haruka on the other hand was by nature an introvert. However, because of her social background, she became much of an extrovert. Both things were not really helthy for their mental well-being.

Cologne saw three specific lines that were pulsing with life connecting to Ranma and Haruka. The reddish line that connected Ranma to Haruka was somewhat expected, after all they deeply cared for each other. What she hadn't expected was the blueish line that connected Ranma to the water falling behind her back, and the brownish line that connected Haruka to the earth beneath her feet. This explained so much, yet raised so many more questions.

It explained how Ranma was able to pick up the water based styles so quickly, the umisenken and soul of ice, while struggling to pick up other styles, like the bakusai tenketsu and the yamisenken and having to put on really hard work to make progress in them. She wondered if it would be a good idea to pass the bakusai tenketsu to Haruka instead. She may be more apt in learning such a technique, and would benefit the most from her almost brawlish style of fighting. Although, Ranma had helped polished her style up much, her core would remain a straightforward approach to things.

Given the time restraint and their return to Tokyo this evening, she would have to shelve this idea for a later time, however it is a valid query to ask Ranma about since he was her sensei.

-CM-

Friday afternoon, Ami sat uneasily in her chair, waiting for Ranma to show up. She was going to confront him about Jusenkyo after this Juku session, and was understandably nervous about it. She felt that also asking about the Senshi would tempt fate too much.

She saw the pigtailed boy enter the room, but he only smiled slightly at her and slumped lazily in his seat next to her. "Hey, Mizuno-san," he said casually, leaning back to fall into the half catatonic state that she'd seen him in occasionally before. She had gently tried to wake him the first time, but as he'd been able to remember what the teacher had said she'd given up when he started doing it again.

Opening her book for the current week's questions, which she'd studied thoroughly the night before, she waited while the teacher started talking. For once, she fidgeted while the teacher talked and Ranma seemed to notice as he threw her an odd glance every once in a while.

"You okay?" the pigtailed boy finally asked, leaning over to whisper it into her ear.

Ami almost jumped a full foot into the air, but suppressed the reaction. "Yes, but can I speak to you after class?" she asked.

A worried look flashed across Ranma's face, followed by one of slight nervousness, but he eventually reluctantly answered, "Sure."

Ami sighed in relief. That was at least one hurdle out of the way. Now, all she had to do was wait through the rest of the class without going nuts. Trying to lose herself in the lesson, she began to read her notes once again and prayed for class to be over quickly.

Thankfully, class went by without a problem.

"Look, Mizuno-san, are you feeling okay?" Ranma asked again, actually looking concerned. "You seemed a little bit jumpy today."

"I'm fine," Ami said. "Can we go out and talk in the park across from the library? I need to speak to you in private."

Ranma suddenly frowned nervously, but nodded, and grabbed some of Ami's usual huge pile of text books. "I'll carry these for you, okay?"

She nodded, and the two proceeded out of the library. As the two proceeded across the street and Ami guided them to a bench that was hidden away deep in the park, Ranma became more nervous, until finally couldn't hold it.

"You aren't one of the girls Genma gypped coming to find me, are you?" he finally blurted.

Ami just blinked at him for a moment. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"You don't know Genma Saotome, do you?" he clarified. Seeing her rather baffled shake of the head, he started running down a list. "You're not engaged to me, trying to kill me, got a sister or other relative who's either of those?" At each of Ami's baffled shakes of the head, he seemed to get more relaxed. "Okay, then what's up?"

"Well, I'd first like to know why you'd ask a bunch of questions like that," the Senshi of Mercury said, honestly confused.

Ranma shrugged. "Long story," was all he said, and she supposed that she would have to settle for that for the time being.

"Well then," she said, and then started trying to pick words to ask her next few questions. Honestly, she hadn't given much thought to what she would actually SAY to Ranma to confront him. She didn't want to pull Konatsu into the whole thing as well, so she made a decision.

"I know your secret," she said.

Now, that stopped Ranma right away. "What are you talking about?" Rnama really hoped that she didn't mean one of his two BIG secrets.

"Jusenkyo." Ami hoped being short on words would get this over faster, as Ranma started to look agitated.

"How do you know about that place?" he growled. Right now he felt the old humiliation coming up whenever someone discovered his curse and made fun of it. Even though Ami was absolutely straight-faced, Ranma still felt his annoyance growing.

"I can't say but I know your curse changes your gender." A moment later Ami wished she hadn't said that, as Ranma now didn't look happy at all. Obviously she'd blundered into forbidden territory.

Ranma was very unhappy. Also, how had she learned of it. Trying to remember where he'd met her, Ranma suddenly remembered seeing her when they'd destroyed that monster at the shrine. Back then, she'd not given it any thought, but now... His newfound senses were tingling, something actually was funny about Ami, something in his memory was stirring. Using a minimum of his awareness, he concentrated on Ami and only his discipline stopped him from gasping.

On her forehead was a very faint outline of a planetary symbol. It was then when Ranma remembered the Senshi he'd met in the Juku and everything fell together. 'Just my luck...'

Obviously she'd seen him change when he got hit by water back then. However, unlike certain other people, he wouldn't wave around her secret. "Look, I don't know how you know, but I start to get sick of people using that to make fun of me or blackmail me...

So far, this meeting had gone exactly the wrong way, so Ami decided to cut her losses. "No! Nothing of that sort! I just..."

Ranma shook his head. Figures that Ami just wanted to know things she wasn't meant to. "Oh great, you mean you were just nosy and butted into my business because you could?"

"I...I..." Ami could hardly say now that she did it to confirm he was a Senshi.

Ranma sighed. "Look, just keep it to yourself. I'm sick and tired of word about my curse getting around. I'll see you next Friday, but until then keep your distance from me."

Ami watched him leave. He obviously was hurt by her blunt admission that she knew of his curse. Thank all goodness she'd kept quiet about the Senshi issue. That would have made him blow up. She now was sure he was Neptune, but he also was right that she didn't have any business with talking about his curse. In retrospect she could have just pretended to have seen it somehow and asked what it was, but now it was too late for that.

She also berated herself. She should have know the whole issue was embarrassing to Ranma, but she'd been ignorant until it was too late and she'd offended him. She had no idea how that in turn would influence his willingness to continue acting as a Senshi. And the other one was still unknown, as they only knew that she was a rather masculine girl.

Ranma meanwhile felt a little guilty at how he'd reacted to Ami.

However, he couldn't help it. After years of his curse being used as laughing stock, lust object for perverts or just being called a freak, he'd become very careful about it. He knew he'd been unfair to Ami, but shoved it aside for now. Ami was one of the Senshi and hadn't Setsuna warned them about possible trouble with them?

No, he wouldn't put too much weight on the issue and would instead wait if something happened. He had more pressing problems at the moment.

-CM-

Makoto slid open her bathroom door and stepped out of her bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around her midsection. Her naturally brown hair flowed down onto her back in soft undulating waves. She hated this part of dating, the dressing up. She wanted so much to reject the girly part of dating, but she wanted to make a good impression on Mousse, so she dragged herself infront of her full length mirror and let the towel pool underneath her feet.

She looked herself in the mirror, completely buff. There was no doubt she was a girl, with these body proportions and that set of knockers. How many males still could see her as too masculine was puzzling, although maybe the fact that she was regularly working out played a role, as feminine softness was complemented by considerable muscle that made her look far from weak.

She'd tried for a while to act more feminine in order to fit in, but had given up some time ago, accepting who she was. If Japan wasn't ready for girls like her, it wasn't her problem. Before Usagi had introduced her to the others, she had been unable to get along with other girls, who had always lauged at how she was buddy with some boys - not any romantic stuff but pals with whom you can do all kind of fun activities.

She then looked at the dress she had laid out on her bed before she had taken her shower. It was one of the few personal items she had inherited from her mother after the plane crash, and she refused to throw it out, no matter how much she disliked dresses in general and was only seldom seen wearing one.

This was one of the few daring dresses she owned which called for both a strapless and backless bra in her cup size, of 26D, which was not easy to find in Japan. She had it fitted, and once she put it on, the only thing that would be holding the dress up would be a prayer. She sighed as she looked over herself in the mirror and picked up a simple white panties and slid it up her legs, then she picked up the bra and snapped it over her breasts. She checked the tightness of the bra by jiggling it a little and nodded silently, approving the support it was providing her.

'Who says big tits only have advantages?' she silently snarked, remembering how the big front load was causing her back pains on occasion.

She went with a smaller cup size than what she usually wearing to give more cleavage, as she tried to reduce the apparent size of her breasts. Although she did appreciate people staring at her, she would rather hold a conversation with Mousse than having him stare at her breasts all night long.

She then picked up a pair of pantyhose and sat down on the bed to slowly roll it from her toes up to her thighs one at a time. She then stood up and examined her work. Liking what she saw, she continued on to the dress on her bed. She shimmied herself into the dress and it hugged her figure perfectly, as the dress is fairly low cut and it have a low V back cut as well, which meant it would not be advisable for her to do any sudden movements, else the dress would fall off. The dress also had a long slit down the side which showed off her long legs and a glimpse of her muscularly toned thighs.

The Senshi of Jupiter then went over to her nightstand and picked out a pair of tanzanite teardrop earrings, another one of her mother's possessions, and snapped them on her ears. She picked up her usual green hair beads and put her hair up in her signature ponytail. She then looked herself in the full length mirror, trying to figure out what exactly was missing from this ensemble, her eyes widened in realization and went over to her dresser and took out the fuschia lipstick and lightly applied it on her lips. She then took a napkin and folded her lips against it lightly to remove any excess.

Looking herself once over in the mirror, a grin cracked over her face, as she liked what was staring back at her.

She then went to her closet and took out a pair of light brown heels, not excessively heels but enough to show off more of her luscious legs; she slipped them on and she sauntered over to the mirror once again. Her grin of happiness growing, as the prospect of dating again was such a joyous thought to her. After all, her last REAL date had been some time ago.

As she was about to exit her apartment, she stopped in front of the hall closet and slid it open. Inside was the only girly indulgence she allowed herself to take: hand bags. Inside were two dozen handbags, grouped together by colour, ranging all the colours of the spectrum. She picked out a small cylindrical handbag that had the handle glittering with green sheen as light reflected off it. The body of the bag was brown in colour to match her shoes and hair. She put some kleenex, her keys and her wallet into it.

Sliding the handbag over her shoulder, she walked to the door. Taking a quick glance at the clock that was in her living room, she had 45 minutes to walk to the rendez-vous point, which was more than sufficient time to get there.

To say Mousse was nervous, was to say that the sun was a flicker of light.

Mousse had never been on a date before, so he did not know what was expected of him. He was introduced to a completely new territory, specially since throughout his entire life he was dictated what was expected of him, and what he was required to garner a female's attention: beat them up and they would be married.

However, that rule did not apply here in Japan. He did not know how to gain a female's attention by being himself; and having living in such a mentally suppressed environment, he did not really know what was himself. He had made a reservation at a posh French restaurant It had been easy, since a customer who was impressed by his culinary art turned out to be the owner of Chez Marie, Francois. Francois offered a generous discount should he want to try out his restaurant. Mousse figured now would be a good time as any to take up Francois's generous offer.

Hence, why Mousse was pacing back and forth in front of the French Restaurant, wearing his best silk outfit and waiting for his date to show up. He didn't have to wait for long, as a thing of beauty sauntered up to him, hypnotizing him with every step of her sybiatric walk. His mouth became extremely dry and his brain shutted down as all of the blood in his body rushed to his loins. His pupils became dilated and his nostrils flared out as he inhaled deeply, trying to sedate himself. He was frozen in place like staring directly into the eyes of Medusa. He felt his legs petrified, and his arm numb from the lack of blood in his system.

'Oh man...' was the only thing he could think.

Makoto stopped in front of the blind martial artist. Waving her hand in front of him resulted in nothing. This would not do, she needed him to talk, or how else would she know what he was like. Drastic time called for drastic measures. She lifted her foot and stomped down on Mousse's foot... hard.

"Owww!" Mousse howled, the pain jolted Mousse out of his trance state. "Umm, hello?" Mousse then fumbled out the first words out of his mouth after he composed himself.

Makoto smirked and responded "Hello, yourself"

Mousse offered out his arm, as he had seen on so many of those western movies, and Makoto responded to his silent offer and hooked her hand into the offered arm, allowing him to lead her into the restaurant.

Mousse showed the Maitre Dame the invitation that Francois had given him and the Maitre Dame immediately ushered them inside to a private table adjacent to the kitchen. Makoto was surprised how they were given special treatment in one of the most expensive restaurants in Juuban. After sitting down, it was not long before a burly of a man, no doubt French in origin, came into the room with a big grin on his face.

"Ah Monsieur Mousse! It is so good to see you again!" the big cuddly bear of a man spoke in fluent Japanese with a thick French accent. He came in holding a serving plate, and on it was a teapot, two teacups, a basket of fresh french bread, a stick of butter, and two small plates. He placed the items appropriately in front of the two of them, as he kept on speaking.

"Hello Francois, I thought I would take up on your offer for this date of mine," Mousse responded amicably.

"Is there anything you don't eat, allergies?" Francois asked Makoto and Mousse.

Both of them shook their head in the negative, Francois's grin grew wider, as the portly man existed the small room. He left them alone to whip up his signature meal for two.

As the door closed, Makoto picked up the teapot and offered it to Mousse, Mousse smiled and nodded his head as she poured some tea for him and then some for herself.

"So, how exactly were you able to get a chef's table at Chez Marie?" Makoto asked.

"Well" Mousse took a sip of his tea to compose himself and gathered his thought, after a while he carefully recounted the story to Makoto.

As the date went on, Mousse felt himself became more relaxed, and found himself telling more stories about his village and his journey from China to Japan, though he left out the real reason why he came to Japan. There are few things he felt ashamed about, among them was how he had handled the situation where Shampoo was involved.

Makoto told him somewhat about her life before becoming a Senshi, she did not tell Mousse about her extracurricular activities of defending Juuban by fighting Youma. She was able to go down memory lane and told him about what she remembered about her childhood, able to gleam over the fact that both of her parents were dead. It had been almost three years, but she still felt the wound was too fresh for her to talk about it.

As they exited the restaurant, Makoto slipped her right hand into Mousse's left. She lead him slowly to the entrance of her apartment complex, all the while talking about nothing in general. When the arrived in front of her building, she leaned down and kissed the Chinese boy on the cheek and entered her building saying goodbyes.

Mousse stood there transfixed on the spot, it took a while before his mind rebooted again, and with a huge smile on his face turned around and headed back to his restaurant, marking this date as a success.

END

Beta-read by Tribun.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40: A True Friend

"Kaolinite, tell me, how is your charge doing?" Professor Tomoe asked, while carefully pouring the growth solution into the beaker with the newest Daimon egg he had created in order to perfect it.

Kaolinite didn't look happy, as always when the topic was that girl. "She is taking a nap. She won't be awake for hours, said she feels drained recently."

"Oh yes... our dear Mistress 9 seems to be a little too greedy recently. I should remind her that she should show more restraint," the Professor mused, while observing the growth of the egg carefully. By now he was used to Kaolinite disliking the girl, so he didn't think too much about it.

"I don't like playing the babysitter. The little brat she's living in is starting to annoy me more with each passing day," Kaolinite complained, clearly not liking that part of her job.

"Do not worry too much, my dear Kaolinite. Very soon our Mistress is going to get all the power she needs to absorb the girl into herself. And once our great Pharaoh arrives, such petty problems will be a thing of the past," he explained, while checking the crystalline egg for faults.

"Can't be happening soon enough for me..." Kaolinite grumbled, before watching the egg leave. "I take it this is another on the go?"

"Oh yes... it will notify you as soon as a fitting heart is found, so do not bother with it for the time being." The Professor's glasses flashed in the darkness, while he seemed to think of something. "Say, Kaolinite, what are your plans once our great Pharaoh has arrived and we have this world under our thumb?"

"Once our master has arrived, I won't leave your side. That's all I want," she told him.

"Hmmmmmm, your loyality to me is truely remarkable. Yes, it is seldom seen in these days..."

Kaolinite saw that the Professor was starting to get lost in his own thoughts, laughing from time to time. This usually meant that she should leave, as there would be nothing more to say for the moment. Little did she know of what went on inside the Professor's head.

'Oh yes, my dear Kaolinite, you won't leave his side. Your dead body will be just beside his, once I leave it behind.'

'I don't care about that! Don't you dare harm Hotaru!'

'I think it's a little too late for making demands... You should feel honored, seeing that she'll bring Mistress 9 to new hights.'

'Bastard!'

"Hm hm hm hm...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Professor Tomoe let out a burst of demented laughter in order to deal with this inner conflict.

-CM-

Sunday! The only day out of the week when Japanese students - at least those still in middle school - got a full day off. It had always been Usagi's favorite day of the week. She could sleep in and then could do whatever she wanted. Apparently, the sun did not get that memo.

An offending ray of sunlight radiated on to Usagi's closed eyes, waking her up in the process. Her eyes fluttered open to have the offending shaft of light pierce into her retina like tiny little daggers. The blonde was not happy at the prospect she had to wake up, because she had to. She lazily threw herself on to her side and looked at the bedside clock sitting on her dresser.

"10 o'clock," slurred an unhappy Usagi partly from just being woken up "I don wanna wake up at no stupid 10 o'clock."

She turned over onto the other side, away from the offending shaft of light and tried to go back to sleep. The warmth of the sunlight hitting the back of her head felt too warm, like a warm hand holding her head. She threw her pillow behind her head to try and block the offending beam of light, but after a short while she felt the warmth of the sunlight through the pillow. Usagi propped herself up with her forearm and threw a deadly glare at the sun.

"Ow ow ow," she yelped, her eyes were hurting from the radiance of the sun. A soft breeze blew in from her open window, swaying the drapes, causing the ray of light to move back and forth as if chortling at Usagi's suffering. Usagi wanted to sleep more, but she was too comfortable to get up from her bed, and she couldn't go back to sleep with that crack in the drapes. She tried to lean over to grab the drape, but could not quite reach it, as the drapes were just a little bit out of reach.

"Stupid sun, stupid drapes, stupid distance from bed," muttered Usagi darkly as she shimmied over to the edge of her bed. She leaned over to try and grab the curtains, "Almost, almost..." but she overshot her center of gravity and...

**CRASH!**

She took a tumble off of her bed and fell face first on to the hard floor below.

"Owie!" Usagi slowly got up rubbing her bruised nose. "Grrr, stupid sun," she cursed the reason of her current state one last time, before letting out an insufferable sigh, resigning to her fate of waking up early on a Sunday morning, and slowly shuffled out of her room towards the bathroom...

Hopefully, the day would turn out better than its start.

-CM-

People enjoyed the good weather . Despite it already being autumn, it was unusually warm and the only sign of the season was the slowly changing foliage colours. However, one certain tomboy right at the moment couldn't spare the time to enjoy it like everyone else did.

"You know... doing push-ups in the garden is not exactly what I think a nice Sunday is supposed to be," Haruka complained to Ranma, while reaching fifty in her counting and feeling the muscles in her arms sting. Not to speak of the run through the district earlier this morning, where Ranma had not even look winded.

"You know me; that's light, just to stay in shape. Genma Saotome might be a complete idiot, but he at least got the right idea that staying in shape is a good thing... not that he enforced it on himself." Ranma did remember how Genma had gained weight with each passing year of the journey.

"Sadist," Haruka said and Ranma was not sure if she meant it.

Watching how heavily Haruka sweated under the warm sun, as it was quite warm for autumn, he couldn't help but noticed how it glued her workout clothes to her skin. He couldn't overlook the fact that he'd started to enjoy watching a sweating Haruka. He also wondered why his own sweat had never caused him to change, but maybe because it comes out of his body, it didn't count.

"I actually enjoy a good workout," Ranma said, "but I can see that's not a general rule."

"Hmph, I'd right now prefer lazing in the sun," Haruka replied, although she knew complaining was useless.

Thankfully however, Ranma seemed to think they'd done enough and obviously also wanted to just enjoy the day; which was new as Ranma a year ago would've balked at the idea of cutting a training session short.

"Ok, let's get cleaned up. Lazing around sounds good," he announced while finishing his last push-up.

Now he was talking her language. At least for some hours they could forget all the pressure that rested on them; not having to care for the fate of the world and some alien megalomaniac who wanted to destroy their world just for kicks, and also no worries that besides them, school girls were supposed to save the world. In fact, the words 'get cleaned up' gave her an idea.

"Hey, what the...?" Ranma protested when Haruka dragged him to the furo door as soon as they were inside the house. "What's the idea?"

"You know Setsuna would lynch you if you smell up the entire place while you wait for me to be done?" she innocently asked. Haruka knew Setsuna actually wouldn't care at all, but that wasn't the point.

"Haruka, we can't use the furo together!" Ranma protested once he got what she intended to do.

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, it's not that we haven't done things that go beyond that." Haruka wondered about Ranma's logic. "It's faster and there are always these hard to reach places. Also see it as good training for later in life, as then you'll see me like that a lot."

Ranma saw that there would be no choice, unless he wanted to disappoint her. And truth to be told, he was a little excited by the prospect. "Ok, just washing each other."

"Just washing..." she promised, although the smile she gave him didn't reassure Ranma she would not try to expand the definition of 'washing' to other activities.

The furo door closed behind them.

When they left the furo wearing bathrobes half an hour later, both of them were literally glowing, although Ranma also blushed a little at the memory of what the two of them had done. This didn't escape Nodoka's eye when she noticed them walking towards the stairs and she stopped them.

"Not that I complain that you two get along so well, but please do not tell me I have to clean up the aftermath," she asked.

"Nothing happened. After all, we can keep ourselves under control," Haruka told her.

True, they didn't have sex in the narrow definition of the word, especially since Ranma still was too nervous for that, but there were always other things they could test out. And it had been very satisfying. Ranma seemed relieved he could return the favor this time and for someone wholly inexperienced, he wasn't that bad. He'd been a little clumsy but that had to be expected and she got rewarded for her patience.

"Yes, nothing happened... Just washing. Lots of washing," Ranma added.

Not that he was lying, they just had washed every bit of each other, with extra attention to certain places. He was blushing because Haruka had praised his 'gentle fingers' and had insisted on using warm water. She in return had proven that her fingers could not only skillfully manipulate girl-Ranma, but boy-Ranma as well. That had been so... great.

Watching them leave, Nodoka shook her head. "Is that what they call it these days?"

-CM-

At first glance it looked like a normal Sunday in the Tendo house.

Everything seemed peaceful, but in the mind of Nabiki Tendo, it was too peaceful. Her sharp eyes and keen observation skills alerted her to something that was far from normal, all of which centered around Genma Saotome. Considering the man's reputation, trouble was around the corner.

Ever since Ranma's visit a week ago, there had been a change in Genma's behavior. Before, Genma had been a huge crybaby, complaining restlessly about Ranma and his supposed faults while repeatedly engaging in heavy drinking, especially with her father Soun. Recently, Genma was strangely quiet and was barely drinking at all. He also was acting strange around their father.

Soun himself was a different matter. He also was rather quiet, but for different reasons.

They expected Soun constantly bursting into tears. Now that Akane had the choice of starting a mastership journey to continue practicing her school of martial arts. Strangely enough also to their great surprise, he opted to be more in his own thoughts and remained calm. The only time that he remained calm and collected like this was before their mother's death.

Perhaps it was good that her father had finally decided to act his age, since she suspected Genma otherwise would have already done whatever he was planning.

He was constantly trying to talk Soun into sharing a drink, belying that he himself hadn't touched alcohol for a whole week (a new record) and thankfully her father always found a way to weasel out of it. She had also caught Genma near the desk where all the important paperwork was kept. She had a general idea what this meant, but she now was on her guard and had actually shared her suspicions with her sister.

She had expected Akane to outright deck Genma for whatever he was planning, but surprisingly she agreed that it was suspicious and promised to watch him more closely as well. The youngest Tendo's stress levels had been reduced after she made peace with Ranma. Akane could be quite reasonable.

'You've hurt enough people, Saotome. Once I've caught you at whatever you plan - and I know it's something we won't like - your ass is toast,' she darkly thought.

-CM-

The Ginza district of the Chuo ward of Tokyo was ablaze with life. As one of the most famous shopping districts of the city, it was crowded with people on this early Sunday afternoon. The Chuo Street as usual was locked for traffic over the weekend and filled to the brim with shoppers, including two girls from Minato ward, who usually wouldn't go into this expensive shopping district.

Usagi couldn't believe her luck, while animatedly chatting with Naru and following Mrs. Osaka through down the street. The day had looked to be boring until Naru had arrived at the front door, looking very excited. As it turned out, her mother, Mayumi Osaka, had managed to finish a huge order of specially-made jewels and had gotten such a big payment that she felt like celebrating. So she'd closed the Osa-P shop for the day and Naru let Usagi know that her mother would be more than happy to treat her to a shopping tour through Ginza, since she was Naru's friend of ten years.

Usagi had been a little embarrassed by it - after all she hadn't been much of a friend to Naru recently - but didn't miss the chance to spend an afternoon with her in order to mend the distance between them.

She didn't ask the others and knew they wouldn't have time anyway as she learned yesterday. Ami would be still trying to compose an answer to the letter from Ryo Urawa she got yesterday, Rei was busy with cleaning the pit of the sacred fire, Mamoru was trying to get a paper finished for college, Minako had to help her mother in the garden and Makoto of course had her head in the clouds over a certain Chinese boy. Even Luna was busy, although she had no idea what she and Artemis could be doing.

She again had felt ashamed that it'd take all the others being busy, before she could give Naru her undivided attention. If Naru just knew, it would be so easy to make time for her. No more making excuses, no more keeping secrets from her. She could go well with the others, if not for the huge elephant of the secret that made normal interaction impossible. After all ,you could hardly relax around each other if you constantly had to watch out what you say.

It was this damn secrecy that was threatening to drive a wedge between her and Naru.

And maybe it was more than that. Her friendship to Naru after all at first hadn't suffered when she'd become Sailor Moon. It was only after Serenity's awakening that the distance had really grown. Was Serenity influencing her to abandon Naru in favor of her friends of old? After all, when she'd suffered from memory loss, she'd mended the distance to Naru until her memory - and therefore Serenity - was restored. Not that the others were bad people, but she'd like to have the choice.

She didn't want to think about Serenity's memory taking over, one more reason why the prospect of becoming the queen of Earth didn't appeal to her any longer.

"I still can't believe Umino bailed out," she told Naru, not wasting a thought for all these issues right now.

"I do not blame him. He is a good boyfriend, despite his nerdy looks, but he does have his limits. And as much as he likes me, getting dragged onto a shopping trip with two girls is not his definition of fun," Naru explained to Usagi. "Don't you think Mamoru would bail out as well?"

"Well, I guess not..." Usagi wouldn't admit that she didn't know. She had to remember asking him; one of the many things she didn't know about him and had never before bothered to ask.

"See? I don't believe in intentional cruelty, so there were no hard feelings when he told me," Naru explained further, yet, Usagi's comment again made her wonder.

She knew next to nothing about Mamoru and it was hard to believe that the young man - after all Mamoru already was 19 and even with Usagi's 15th birthday in less than three weeks he still would be four years her senior - who had mocked Usagi on the street a little over a year ago could be so close to her now. It was somewhat paradoxical.

Also, Usagi had recently acted strange in school. This week had been especially strange. First Usagi had suddenly become depressed and then stopped coming to school altogether, and then she'd returned back to normal as if nothing had happened at all. Usagi hadn't told her at all what had happened, just that she'd felt not so good for some time... As if she couldn't give her the real reason.

That again brought her to her suspicions why Usagi had changed so much, causing her to drift away. She had never found any confirmation, but everything pointed to the idea that Usagi was Sailor Moon. She hadn't told Usagi for two reasons: she didn't have proof and she wanted Usagi actually to tell her.

'Not now! Right now I just want to enjoy myself with my friend,' she stopped her thoughts from going any further into that direction.

She didn't notice the crystalline egg floating far above her reacting to her strong emotions.

Kaolinite was watching from far above, having been notified. "Very good, now it won't take long and..." She was interrupted when her beeper went off. "Why now of all times?"

That sound was the bane of her existence, as it meant the girl would need her help and she could hardly deny her without endangering Mistress 9. Seeing that there was little choice, she decided the Daimon could do this on its own, before teleporting away.

Meanwhile back down on the street level...

"Look at this girls! Don't you think it is great they get some recognition?" Mrs. Osaka called, pointing to a window display.

Looking at it, Usagi's good mood evaporated instantly. There were five mannequins wearing quite faithful recreations of their Senshi uniforms. She should have expected this. After all, they were not exactly a secret and were becoming part of Tokyo's pop culture. Still, anything Senshi-related right now reminded her of her conflicted feelings over Naru.

Mrs. Osaka didn't notice. "For all the times she helped Naru and me out of danger, we were never able to properly thank Sailor Moon."

'Please, don't continue...' Usagi silently pleaded, feeling guiltier by the moment.

"Yes, she always leaves so fast," Naru said, before looking to Usagi, noticing how her friend looked pained. No one noticed the crystal egg fusing with the mannequin wearing the Sailor Moon costume.

"I would buy one for you, darling, but I know you're already a little too old to dress up as your heroine," Naru's mother added, still oblivious. "I think... w-what?"

Mayumi Osaka took several steps backwards, when all of a sudden the mannequin of Sailor moon erupted in a sickly green glow. When it started to change and turn into... something while melting the other mannequins and setting them on fire while the window started to crack, Naru's instincts, honed over a number of attacks, kicked in.

"RUN FOR IT!"

That did it and they ran as if death itself was after them. Only seconds later it sounded like the whole storefront exploded. And not only it, but almost every window 100 meters up and down the street exploded into pieces. That was enough to turn everyone present into panic-mode. Screaming people tried to get away as far as possible while streetlights were ripped out and thrown around.

Usagi had lost sight of Naru and her mother and had to try hard not to stumble and get trampled while hectically opening her wristwatch communicator. "Girls! Girls! Answer! Quick!"

To her relief, they did answer and she didn't let them get a word in. "No time! Another monster attack! In Ginza! There's complete panic!"

She didn't need to say more as the others understood at once. Slamming shut her communicator, Usagi quickly looked for a place to transform. She had no illusions about getting help in time. Ginza was far enough away that the others would need well over ten minutes to arrive, even if they were running like hell while transformed. This meant it was solely up to her to stop the monster from doing any more damage and find however it wants to steal the crystal.

She was scared shitless by the idea, as it had been quite some time she'd taken on any monster on her own. Obviously fighting in a group had made her depend on them a bit too much as well.

Seeing a shadowed side alley that was probably as best as she could get for transforming, she quickly left the mass of panicked people, an into the alley and was just about to pull out her brooch and jump behind a trash container to transform, when...

"Usagi?"

"Naru? What are you doing here, where is your mother?" She had no expected to find Naru in the alley, who was trying to catch her breath. That made things more complicated.

"We got separated... barely got in her before being trampled over... I... Oh uh!"

Usagi didn't need to know what that meant, but running away was no option, as the alley ended in a high wall, making escape impossible. Turning around, she was greeted by the sight of the Daimon. While it wasn't by far the ugliest she'd seen - there were some things that still caused her to shudder - what it, or better she, looked like was a personal affront.

She should have expected it, as the monster had come from a mannequin wearing a Sailor Moon costume. However, the dark twist in it was undeniable. All the blue parts had turned pitch black, the reds went dark green and instead of a simple red stone, the tiara featured a black star. Even more disconcerting, the monster essentially looked like her, just with grey hair and light blue skin. It was as if looking into a twisted mirror.

This... Fake Moon gave them a mean smile when seeing how they'd run into a trap. "Well, well, well. Looks like you make things far too easy for me."

Usagi couldn't get out a word, this monster even had imitated her voice perfectly.

Naru on the other hand didn't stay silent after looking between the two, her expression unreadable. "How dare you to impersonate her!" she gasped, trying to sound brave despite the situation.

"Oh my!" Fake Moon mocked her. "Have I hit a nerve? I'm so NOT sorry!"

"Just wait until she arrives, then you'll see." Naru's confidence seemed to leave her, as she sounded more scared by the second.

"I don't see her here. Just that weakling there, and I sincerely doubt she can stop me." That said, the black star on her tiara started to glow.

That was exactly how Usagi had feared Naru would eventually learn of her secret, but right now she didn't care when she took hold of her brooch from her subspace pocket (it was safer in there). 'I hope you can forgive me, Naru..'

Naru and Fake Moon barely registered what happened and then all of a sudden white light erupted from Usagi, blinding both of them for a second, before they suddenly saw a nude Usagi bathed in white light and in just a few seconds, she was wearing the outfit of Sailor Moon.

Quickly getting over the surprise, Fake Moon grinned. "Well, that certainly is a surprise. However, even you can't stop me." Seeing Naru try to make a run for it, she just waved her hand and the trash container blocked the entrance of the alley, spikes growing on top of it. "Oh no, you won't."

Sailor Moon was a bit at a loss for what to do. Since Naru was so close, the Senshi could not use her destructive spell, without Naru getting at least clip by it. Which only left melee, something the Senshi preferred not to do because she was bad at it.

"Pathetic!" Fake Moon called and easily side-stepped Sailor Moon's overextended kick, and pulled her offbalance sending her sailing toward a wall behind her. "I saw that one miles away!"

That had hurt, but by sheer determination, Moon attacked her again, this time by punching, but her inexperience shown once again, by not keeping her guard up, leaving her long hair open which got grabbed and feeling herself being spinned by the daemon, then she sailed face-first into another wall, causing her to bleed from the mouth. "You aren't that great once you can't call up on you magic, eh?"

Sailor Moon tried one more time, but Fake Moon caught her by the throat, sadistic glee dancing in Fake Moon's eyes as she looked into the eyes of her counterpart, her hand around her neck slowly closed firmly around Moon's neck choking the princess before punching her hard right below the sternum. The mirth within the evil Moon bubbled to the top as she threw the blonde senshi further down the alley. Seeing Moon on her knees trying to get up, gasping for breath, she gloated. "Ha, see how easy that was? We are exactly alike, but with one big difference: I don't care. And that is what makes me stronger than you!"

She then turned her attention to Naru. "Now, this will only hurt for a moment..."

Naru was horrified how easily Sailor Moon got dispatched. Mixed into her horror was her confusion at the confirmation of her suspicion... Usagi was Sailor Moon. But right now that wasn't important, as she suddenly saw the black star in the monster's tiara flare up and then it felt as if her entire body was aflame, before everything turned black.

Having just barely avoided falling into her own vomit, Moon saw in horror how the monster extracted the crystal from a screaming Naru, who promptly collapsed. Seeing her hold this expression of Naru's soul was a disgusting sight. "Take your hands off it..." she threatened, while getting up.

"Oh, you are still there. It's not what I'm looking for anyway." Fake Moon then looked from Sailor Moon to Naru. "You care for her, don't you? One good squeeze and this crystal is a goner."

"I won't let you..." Moon was surprised how this monster threatening to kill Naru was giving her new strength. She suddenly understood. And she now knew she had one attack she could use in this narrow alley.

"Oh, how? Your previous attempts after all went wonderfully." She saw Moon taking off her tiara. "That one? That lame beginner attack? Now you are grasping at straws," she mocked.

Sailor Moon threw the rotating tiara and Fake Moon easily sidestepped it. "You missed," she gloated, but then saw Moon smiling. "What's so funny?"

Fake Moon hadn't seen the tiara acting like a boomerang, returning and being guided by Sailor Moon, and... "AAAAAAAGGGGHHH!" Fake Moon screamed when suddenly the tiara cleanly sliced through the wrist of the hand holding the crystal. Black blood shot out of the arm stump while Moon quickly grabbed the crystal out of the fallen hand and her tiara reappeared on her forehead.

"You damn little...!" Fake Moon cared, closing the wound. "Where's the crystal?"

Sailor Moon would not reveal she had stored it in her useful subspace pocket to keep it safe. "I won't tell you."

"You are dead!... What's so funny?" Fake Moon wondered when seeing Sailor Moon smile.

"You said that you are stronger because you don't care. How wrong you are," Sailor Moon said, holding the moon sceptre in her hands. "You got it exactly backwards."

"Rubbish!" Fake Moon cried, before carelessly throwing an attack spell at Sailor Moon. However, it just fizzled out before it could reach her. "What...?"

"You are strong because you don't care... I'm stronger because I do care even more than you don't. You can't hurt me."

"BULLSHIT!" Fake Moon cried, jumping up to directly attack Sailor Moon, but didn't expect her to right then point the scepter into her direction and a crescent moon shooting out of it. There was no way she could avoid it.

"NOOOOOOOAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

A Direct hit! All life fled the daemon's body as the monster returned back to a mannequin which cluttered to the ground. The crystal egg popped out beside it, cracking before the essence of the Daimon dissipated into nothingness.

Moon collapsed right afterwards. This had taken more out of her than she had expected. It was just because she cared so much about Naru that it had worked in the first place. Had the monster been anything other than a reverse Sailor Moon, its spell would have hit her. Concentrating to make the spell not cause collateral damage had been difficult. Slowly taking out the crystal, she looked at the essence of her friends, at the colors that represented Naru's very essence of life. Holding it in her hands, Moon shuddered when she felt emotions that were not her own overcame her.

She was feeling what Naru was feeling! She gasped as the feeling of loneliness washed over her. Which quickly followed by a wrenching combination of helplessness and hopelessness as something very dear to her slipped away, but could do nothing except watch everything disintegrated into dust and blew away at the lightest breeze. Through all these negative emotions, the blonde could still feel the core of what made Naru such a dear friend. Her loyalty, her willingness to help if Usagi would be in need. Mixed in was also tinges of disappointment, a feeling that things were in disrepair.

Feelings of guilt and self-recrimination coursed through Usagi like a raging river. Naru was a true friend and she had alienated and neglected her because of her duties. Shambling over to Naru's body, her body was still hurting from the fight. She allowed the crystal to sink into her friend's chest returning life back into Naru.

Slowly, Naru opened her eyes, seeing Sailor Moon looking at her. "Usagi?" she asked with a degree of uncertainty. Gentle light danced over the other girl's body. After a few seconds of nudity, plain Usagi Tsukino knelt beside her and pulled her into a warm embrace.

"Please forgive me! I... I wanted to tell you, but..."

Naru returned the hug to reassure her friend. "No, I'm not angry at you. I already suspected it."

"R-really?" Usagi uttered in surprise.

Naru released her and looked her into the eyes. "No more secrets. Tell me everything."

Usagi nodded. Naru hugged her again, to show that she did care for Usagi. For words were not needed to convey the apology and regret, they could finally heal the wounds that were caused by this secret.

Through the reconciliation, the two girls failed to notice that they were watched from above.

"All the way to Ginza, and she's already blasted the sucker," Sailor Uranus complained. looking down into the alley from the rooftop.

"You're just miffed that Pluto interrupted us napping in the garden chairs," Neptune told her partner with a grin. Right now she could see the humor in it. Looking down again, she added "At least this one seems alright. Quite some power and she cares."

Uranus knew what Neptune meant, as she'd been told of Mercury's botched attempt to talk to Ranma. Speaking of that, they were right then confronted with for more arriving Senshis, who looked at them in puzzlement.

"Sorry, show's already over, the one down there destroyed it," Uranus said, then signed to Neptune that it was time to leave.

"Wait! You can't just leave!" Venus called to they, trying to stop them.

"And why can't we?" Neptune asked, showing no caring for the issue right now.

"What are you hiding that you always leave in a hurry?" Mars asked them with suspicion in her voice, her foul temper, which had lingered all week, finally getting the better of her. "That looks very suspicious."

"Suspicious?" Neptune got more annoyed by the second. "Who are you to judge us?"

"Stop! Stop! That won't get us anywhere!" Mercury cried. "We can't go around accusing them. After all I don't think Ranma is..." Right then she stopped, realising what she had let slip.

Neptune's eyes narrowed. "What's did you say?" Silence was as good as any confession which would had followed. Neptune's face twisted with anger and hurt, especially seeing the lack of a reaction from the other Senshis. "You know... And you told them without even considering about how I would feel about it." Ranma turned and dashed away over the rooftops.

Uranus looked furiously at the girls, as the look of hurt and betrayal on Neptune's face had been very clear. "I hope you're pleased now!" she snapped at them. "Don't even bother looking for us!" She then left as well, leaving the stunned Senshi behind.

"Great going, Mercury," Jupiter told her team mate in disbelief. "We now have seriously pissed them off."

END.

Beta-read by Tribun


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Back to School

Walking to school on Monday, Haruka had no trouble seeing that Ranma's mood still had not fully recovered from the incident the previous day.

Yesterday hadn't been fun. After returning home, she had quickly found Ranma smashing bricks back in the yard until they were nothing more but red dust. She never had seen Ranma this angry before, so she hadn't dared to interrupt her venting until the redhead had stopped the smashing due to a hurting hand.

Instead, Ranma had started ranting.

_-Flashback-_

"Can you believe it? The nerve that she told them!" Ranma shouted, loud enough that it was carried into the house. This was one of the benefits of having a big garden, one could shout and it would not disturb the neighbors.

"To think I was beginning to trust them, and they turn around and do this..." Ranma was so enraged and flabbergasted she could not find the right word to describe her current predicament

"Shit," Haruka supplied helpfully as she watched Ranma pacing back and forth, trying to work out her irritation, while she was sitting on the ground and kept her company.

"Huh?" Ranma stopped and looked at Haruka with a confused look, her anger temporarily forgotten by the vulgar word.

Haruka just shrugged and said "They turn around and do this shit."

Realizing that Haruka was helping her, Ranma continued with her ranting of the Inners. The words clueless idiots, brainless cheerleaders, lobotomized prissy princesses and other creative descriptions came to the forefront. It was not long before they started to make it into a game of Haruka supplying her entire repertoire of cuss words and creativity she had picked up on the track.

During that, Nodoka wandered out from inside the house, curious as to what was happening because of the shouting. She surprised them after hearing what they were doing by adding some creative descriptions that they were surprised even existed in the formal speech patterns she preferred. Who could have known something like that even existed?

By the time they reentered the house, Ranma was actually smiling and Haruka got rewarded with a toe-curling kiss that left her dazed. It took all of the blonde's willpower to not pick Ranma up, carry her to their bedroom, introduce the finer parts of mouth and tongue to the little redhead and to test out the spring of the new king-sized bed they had gotten that day, much to the delight of Nodoka.

Haruka was content to just hold Ranma close as they both fell asleep later at night. There would be time for all of this later.

_-End Flashback-_

Although Haruka had been able to help to divert Ranma's anger and grief, it did little to improve her own opinion of the other Senshi. While she would not do anything drastic, it had reinforced her perception of them being immature teenage girls whom on occasion did not think about the consequences of their actions.

'Unthinking... Immature,' she thought, although she had to admit that she had been like that herself not long ago, so she would not be the one to throw the first stone.

As they approached the school, she decided to let the issue rest for the time being.

-CM-

Ranma walked through the halls of the Infinity Academy, looking for Dr. Tofu and Kasumi during his lunch break. After all, it would be better to make sure everything was alright after what happened last week and not finding them on Friday.

He'd started at the top of the building and worked his way down while chewing on a stick of Pocky. By now most of his bad mood had settled, but he was sure it would take a bit longer before he was completely back to normal. He however did not want to see even a hair of the Inners for the next days. He reached the end of the stick long ago, and was now near the bottom of the building. Typical, right when he wanted to get this over with, he would not find neither of them.

"…girl isn't here to protect you this time, and I SAW you do it!" he heard someone yell and looked over in the direction he heard the sound coming from to see the class where he normally took the theory portion of wood shop.

Frowning, as he was pretty sure he recognized the voice that had spoken, he stepped into the room, and sure enough, there was a group of angry looking boys surrounding a very dark purple haired girl.

"Is this a regular event, or something?" he asked, stepping into the room.

The boys looked up, startled, and backed away, trying to look innocent as the girl cowered. "We aren't doing anything wrong!" one of them blurted, as startled children are wont to do, but Ranma crossed his arms.

"Like I… my sister," he corrected himself, "said. You could at least have the decency to harass her one on one."

"But I…" One of the boys said, unsure what to say. If this boy was the brother to the redhead who had stopped him from beating on the freak a few weeks ago, he wasn't sure what to say.

"I don't particularly care," Ranma replied shortly. "At the least you could do is have the courage not to hide behind a crowd," he growled. Kneeling down in front of the girl, he looked her over. "You okay, Hotaru, right?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, I'm fine," she said shortly, but Ranma noticed that her lunch bento, a rather well made one by the looks of the ribbon and cloth, had been knocked down onto the floor and scattered around.

"You guys, clean that up," he ordered, glaring at the boy who had been instigating this whole mess. "I'm going go get her some lunch." The boy nodded sullenly and started to pick up the Bento as Ranma led Hotaru out of the room.

As the two walked down the hall, the young girl looked up at the boy oddly. She did not hesitate going with him, since he looked a lot like Ranko, and identified himself as her brother. She quite frankly would have given anything to be pulled out of that situation. Still, she had to ask.

"You're Ranma, right? Ranko's brother that she told me about?"

Ranma nodded, not really wanting to lie to the girl, but not feeling like explaining his curse at the moment. After the events of the last days, that was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

As they turned down the hall and into the main section of the building, she asked something else. "What you said, about if he attacked me by himself, Ranko said it too… what did you mean?"

Ranma shrugged, uncomfortably. "Ranko and I are both martial artists," he explained. "Unless there's a really good reason, we don't like getting in fights between two people or two groups, because we could be interrupting a honorable match."

"And what kind of reasons are good ones to interfere?" she asked, being rather confused. She had not heard of martial artists much other than in action movies, and she really dislike those.

"If one's obviously better than the other and he's beating them up just for the fun of it. That sort of stuff. Martial artists have to protect the weak." Ranma shrugged, before coming to a stop at a food stand that was set up near the middle of the floor. "Anything special you want?"

Hotaru shook her head, so Ranma began to order two pretty standard lunches, while several thoughts ran through her head. 'To protect the weak?' she thought. It was a very nice idea… if only she wasn't so weak herself. She frowned, once more wishing that she could become healthy, like her idol Hayase-San, or Ranma and Ranko.

Ranma interrupted the girl's thoughts when he tapped her on the shoulder, and she jumped back slightly at the sight of a plate of food held in his hand. "Did I startle you, Hotaru-chan?" he asked, trying to be comforting.

"No, I'm… I'm fine," Hotaru stammered, reaching out and taking the plate of food. "Thank you, Ranma-San."

He shrugged. "No problem, and just call me Ranma, okay?"

Hotaru nodded back shyly, and was about to say something when a voice could be heard from down the hall. "Ranma, there you are!"

Ranma looked up, seeing that it was Dr. Tofu walking towards him. "Sorry Hotaru, but I've gotta get some stuff done. You gunna be okay?"

The dark haired little girl nodded, holding her plate away from herself and bowing slightly in thanks. "I'll be fine, thank you… Ranma," she said, before running off.

He blinked in confusion, and wondered what that was about, but shrugged it off as Dr. Tofu reached him. "Guess this is about last week?" he asked, knowing the answer already.

"Not exactly, please follow me."

The gi wearing doctor didn't start to talk right away, leading Ranma into an empty classroom, closing the door. "Hey, Doc, is something seriously wrong?" Ranma asked, suddenly getting a lot more worried at the amount of privacy the man was seeking.

Tofu frowned. "That's something I want to find out," he said. "Has anything… odd... happened to Kasumi in the last few weeks?"

"Odd?" Ranma asked, confused. He'd thought Tofu would want to talk about the events of last week, but now he was confused.

"Yes," Tofu replied, "her aura's been manipulated." He then went on to describe his findings.

"Okay, let me get this straight," Ranma said, recapping what Tofu had told him over the past couple of minutes. "Ya think someone's been screwing around with Kasumi's aura because she finally got the courage to go after you?" The pigtailed boy snorted. "Even I knew she had a crush on you, it's not like it'd take people manipulating her to act on it."

Tofu shook his head. "No, I mean I've actually compared her aura with an old scan I did, now that I finally got the chance to with going berserk. It's definitely been changed."

Ranma blinked. "How did you manage to scan Kasumi's aura before? I mean, with how your glasses fog up, I doubt you could've seen it."

"It's actually an adaptation of one of Happosai's techniques…" Tofu started, before he saw Ranma's horrified and disgusted look. "No! I didn't do that!" he clarified, waving his hands frantically. "She gave me food wrapped in cloth sometimes, and I read off of that."

"Oh, um, sorry Doc." Ranma said, sheepishly, while the older man gave him an annoyed and put upon look. "So, what's different about her aura?"

Tofu shrugged. "It's been super-charged with Chi. More specifically, a massive boost of confidence." He frowned, then blushed. "It actually wouldn't make her act any different than she normally does, really, other than, well, being more assertive in doing things and talking to people. I'm worried."

Ranma stopped, tempted to say that if it was something so simple, not to worry about it, but Tofu honestly did look concerned so he ranged his memory back over his interactions with the oldest Tendo over the last few weeks. It was then that he blinked, his eyes widening. "I don't suppose having her aura sucked out of her body and then hit with a Moko-Takashiba at full power would do it, would it?" he asked.

Tofu instantly narrowed his eyes. "And how, exactly, did THAT happen?" He asked, his glasses shining dangerously.

"Well, um, there was this…" Ranma started, trying to think of a way of explaining the monster attack without revealing his new 'side job' to Tofu. That would surely take some creative interpretation of the facts, as he felt Tofu would instantly see through any lie.

It took quite some thinking. The first part was easy, as the initial attack and the crystal absorbing the blast was quickly said without alteration, although Tofu looked for a moment as if he was about to rip into Ranma. He seemed to control himself by the fact that Ranma hadn't done it on purpose. As Ranma then spun it, getting knocked around by that thing hadn't been healthy and he was out of the fight, while two Senshi took care of it. That wasn't strictly a lie, as Ranma was out of the fight while Sailor Neptune had done the work. He just hoped Tofu would buy it.

Dr. Tofu was shaking his head once he'd heard the whole story. "Of all things..."

"Uh, Doc? Is this going to hurt Kasumi?" Ranma asked, hoping to steer it in a different direction.

"No, it won't. It will fade over time once her own energies start to replace it, though I suspect she will keep part of her new confidence. However, I have to warn you that it still is part of you and could have some strange effects."

"Strange effects?" Ranma asked.

"You won't notice anything. But considering it was your energy, it is still connected to you. Kasumi could get glimpses of your current emotions, if they are strong enough," Tofu warned Ranma. He didn't tell Ranma that Kasumi had told him that she hadn't felt that well yesterday, having felt upset for unknown reasons.

Ranma felt a little uncomfortable, but at least Kasumi would respect his privacy and not tell anyone else. Hearing the bell signaling the end of lunch break right then, Ranma quickly excused himself and left.

Dr. Tofu couldn't help but to roll his eyes once Ranma had left. Ranma was a bad liar and someone like him, who had spent years experiencing people trying to lie about how they'd gotten their more embarrassing injuries, could see through it right away. No, Ranma had not exactly lied, but he hadn't told him the full truth. There was something more to the whole issue.

However, he would not force the issue.

Leaving the classroom, Tofu couldn't help but to think about visiting her in the palor she was working at during closing time. The owners had said it would be alright and it would give them time to talk. In a way, slowly learning who Kasumi Tendo is was very nice and he knew she enjoyed the two of them just talking to get each other better known.

-CM-

Tokyo was bathed in the dusk afternoon light of the slowly setting sun later that day. However, the four girls and two cats meeting at the Hikawa Shrine had little eye for it. They had different problems to deal with after yesterday's events. Now was the first opportunity they could talk without interruption.

"Where's Usagi? Shouldn't she be here with us?" Ami asked. She had last seen her at school and not since then.

"Don't expect her to come," Luna said. "She told me she's spending the rest of the day with Naru. After yesterday, they have a lot to talk about. And I have to forewarn you, she'll bring her here tomorrow so that she learns the whole story from all of you."

They knew they should've expected that someone sooner or later learns of their secret and thankfully Naru had promised to keep it secret. Yet, they didn't know how to feel about it, as each of them - even Makoto with her new flame - had people they were keeping in the dark about their secret. Everyone knew that it could become nasty the longer they let it fester, yet they couldn't find a way to reveal themselves.

"Maybe it's better that way. After all, it means Usagi won't learn of this whole mess," Rei said.

That was news to Artemis. "What? She still doesn't know of this Ranma?"

"No, we never had a chance to tell her. She was never there when it came up. And after yesterday it's pretty clear we shouldn't at all," Makoto explained, feeling that she didn't want to get into the bad graces of the Outers.

"This gets better with every minute. Keeping information from our princess," Artemis groaned, then saw that Luna didn't blink an eye. "You actually agree with that?"

"As much as I want her to take more responsibility, this is a case where I think it's better to leave her out of it. That's for her own good," Luna lectured him.

"You all are impossible..." Artemis decided in disbelief.

"Try to marsupial us out and you're gonna get it," Minako threatened and Artemis shut up, but winced at her butchering of idioms yet again. His face was still frowning with defiance. There was no doubt that he still felt that they were making a big mistake and would say so once it would blow up in their faces.

"And now that this is done with, What do we do now? Uranus and Neptune looked ready to turn poor Ami into a smoking hole in the ground. I don't really want to meet them again," Minako then finally came to the point of the meeting.

"How should I have known I blundered this badly?" Ami winced. "First I anger him after Juku and then I spead around his secrets." Blushing, she hid her face behind the book she was holding.

Ami was dreading Friday. She had a feeling that Ranma knew exactly who she was, the way she had looked at her, as if recognising someone, left little doubt to it. How would he treat her during Juku? How angry would he be? That alone made her feel rather unwell, especially since she fully deserved his anger for being insensitive about his secrets.

"I still can't believe there's a Senshi that's only part-time girl. Kind of freaky." Minako really couldn't imagine it, as the ramifications were downright scary.

"-Snort- See, I think that's exactly why he didn't want this to be public knowledge," Artemis lectured her. Sometimes, Minako was a bit thick. "How would you feel if one of your secrets is publicly announced?"

"But this is not public though, it was between the Senshi," Makoto protested. "We would never tell anyone else about it."

"I don't get it. What's with all this secrecy?" Minako wondered. "Don't they see it's easier when we work together?"

"Their jobs and your jobs were different" Luna informed "You four were meant to kept the peace within the kingdom, and theirs was to protect the kingdom from any outside invasions. As a result your paths never really crossed. Before Serenity II. delegated the jobs as such, it was very chaotic as who was doing what, that it just caused so much unnecessary confusion."

"Oh, I still don't understand why they are so sensitive about the issue" Rei declared with a frown. "We all are Senshi. If they won't help us, I don't see the point in helping them."

"Not this again..." Ami knew it was difficult for Rei to keep her cool. "We certainly won't gain their trust by acting like offended children."

"I- what?" Rei wasn't used to Ami voicing scorn to others.

Ami however was not done. "I won't deny my responsibility for this mess. I should have tried to talk to Ranma at once, before telling you. But this won't release you from trying to make an effort to mend the rift, regardless how."

Seeing how adamant Ami was on this subject, the others did not want to continue on this subject anymore.

Although, Ami's course of action was clear. Rei and Minako were not about to let things go, the scowl on their faces was clear. Makoto, on the other hand, wanted to see how things would develop, but she was leaning toward Rei and Minako's conclusion as well.

-CM-

Two days later found Haruka facing one of her most feared enemies.

"Dresses, yuck!"

Haruka grumbled as she forced herself into a dress that Nodoka had insisted on buying for her. As much as she did not like it, the Senshi of Uranus wanted to help Ranma to forget about the incident a few days ago, even though she knew he by now was in a better mood than that day.

It was Wednesday and she could still see the lingering sadness in his lackluster eyes.

She snorted, she must be in love for her to wear something this feminine, but Ranma's recent behavior worried the masculine girl. For two days now, she'd seen Ranma almost exclusively as a girl, today Ranma hadn't bothered to turn back to male at all, for whatever reason. Haruka loved his girl form, but she had to make a point tonight that she loved him for him regardless of what body he was in.

She smirked, that even sounded weird in her own head.

She released a long exaggerated sigh; the pain she had to endure for love.

As she reluctantly took a look at the low-cut dress that showed off some of her cleavage, she slipped on the heels that would extend her already long legs. She took a hesitant step forward, feeling her ass jiggle, and then followed up with her other foot. She was so used to wearing flat shoes that it took a bit to get used to, since the last time she'd worn real heels was two years ago at the insistence of her mother.

'Yeah, that went so well... Thank all goodness I somehow can balance without a problem when being a Senshi,' she thought, remembering the heels of her Senshi boots.

She nodded her head in approval, and took a deep breath, hoping this dress and what she planned for tonight would finally help Ranma out of his funk.

When Haruka found Ranma, he was in her girl form and performing a kata in the backyard. A look of frustration was etched on the redhead's face. She was in the middle of a long kata that Ranma had been teaching her for a week now. She still could not perform the aerial roundhouse kick followed by backward spin punch down without dropping her guard yet. She shudddered when remembering yesterday's training session. Haruka decided to go find some warm water to change her lover back into a guy for their date, while Ranma finished with the last parts of her katas.

When Haruka returned, Ranma was winding down from her kata. Feeling Haruka's presence behind her, Ranma turned around. The blonde Senshi took this opportunity to splash the aquatransexual.

"Why you do - URK!" Ranma's protest was cut short when he spotted what Haruka was wearing.

Ever the opportunist, Haruka took this chance to plant a forceful kiss onto Ranma's lips. Ranma was too shocked, first by the lovely sight in front of him, and second by the kiss he was on the receiving end of. It took a while for his brain to reboot. When Haruka was breaking the kiss, Ranma bit down on her lips eliciting a soft moan from Haruka. Ranma's arm came up and wrapped around Haruka's waist as he returned the kiss with as much passion, holding on for dear life.

Ever since that night in the mountains, Ranma had felt somewhat conflicted with his sexuality. He did not know how exactly he should feel about the entire thing. While he liked that Haruka loved both of his forms, it had made him wonder where her preferences were stronger.

A dream two nights ago had further convoluted things for her, no, him.

_-Flashback-_

Ranma watched a dimly lit room, although the room had very sparse furnishing in it, the few things that were in it were extremely extravagant. Not extravagant to show off one's wealth, but extravagant for things to be practical and comfortable. Her eyes darted around the room, her mind for once was conscious of her own surroundings. It just felt so disconcerting to watch an experience from the outside-in. It almost felt like she was snooping, and that feeling left a distaste in her mouth. She unconsciously slapped her lips together several times, trying to get that awful feeling out, but it was to no avail.

Where was this?

On its own, the information came to her. This was Uranus Castle on the moon of Titania, situated at the edge of the city. Ranma didn't waste a thought to this infodump. Instead, she slowly walked towards the nearby balcony, where she spotted two people.

Well, two very naked young women, as Ranma was greeted by the sight of their naked asses.

Ranma didn't even try to speculate why they were standing on the balcony in the nude, feeling surprisingly little shame seeing them like this. She did recognise the previous Sailor Uranus, the strong resemblance to Haruka was a bit frightening. The other woman was harder to recognise, but she finally realized that this was the previous Neptune. This woman looked nothing like her with her long and slender build, aquamarine, wavy hair and a very feminine face. She also had an air of class, elegance and grace that Ranma wanted outside of martial arts.

"This sight never loses any of its beauty, regardless how often I look at it," Neptune gently told Uranus, while gazing at the greenish gas giant in the sky.

Uranus chuckled. "It's not that different from what you see from Triton. I guess it is more of a way for you to live out your exhibitionistic streak."

"I see nothing wrong with showing that I have no secrets. Should someone spot us, I would feel no shame." Neptune then started to caress Uranus' butt. "Besides, I don't hear you complaining."

"Mmmhhh, why should I? After all, you are a sight I can't get enough...gah!" Uranus gasped suddenly when a finger slipped between the globes of her butt. "You know I'm ticklish there!"

"Ooooh! I forgot your namesake is ticklish," Neptune giggled.

"Ohhh, you proper lady. Now you're gonna get it!" Uranus declared before she chased Neptune inside and both fell into the bed, where a tickling war quickly escalated into something more.

Ranma couldn't help but feel extremely aroused by what followed, watching those two really getting into it. She couldn't help but be amazed at their sheer creativity and could have sworn that she felt their touches as well. All of the experience of that night, the feeling of the previous Neptune transferred to Ranma...it had an effect on her, the dream dissipated when she climaxed from all the lust coming into her mind and body all at once.

When she woke up at the morning, her boxers were soaked and she was confused. Was her former life trying to tell her something? Too bad that she couldn't ask Setsuna, as embarrassing as it might be, since she was on leave and not due back until the end of the week.

_-End Flashback-_

That had convinced him that perhaps Haruka really would be more comfortable with him around while he was a girl. He could've just asked her, but his machismo would not allow it. It sounded too much like whining.

Now Haruka was giving him a venue to release it, his heart expanded filling with love for his cute tomboy. Finally breaking the kiss, but still reluctant to remove his arms from her waist. Ranma pulled her tighter inhaling her intoxicating scent.

"So what do I owe for you in a dress?" Ranma rasped out, he was still short-breathed from the kiss.

Haruka laughed at his seriousness and led him into the house for him to change before letting the date be on its way.

-CM-

As Ranma and Haruka entered the house hours later, flushed from the night's dancing, they found Setsuna sitting next to the kitchen counter with a bottle of scotch and a bucket of ice. For some reason, she was taking swigs from the bottle and then popping an ice or two afterwards as a chaser. The scotch was by now about two thirds gone. The usually collected guidance councillor was a mess. Her hair was mussed up and somehow one of her buttons on her business suit got undone and her somewhat conservative turquoise bra was hiked up.

They hadn't expected her back this soon. After all, she hadn't even bothered to tell them of the last attack in person and instead had called them over the phone. Her being back early meant that there was some sort of trouble ahead.

When they walked up to the older Senshi to check what caused her to be this way, they heard her lamenting to the bottle "What diety have I pissed off, for me to have this fucking job," she slurred out almost completely incoherent.

She then turned around, facing the other two Senshi, and waved an unstable hand pointing at the two, her hand circling lightly, but the finger was pointing at the black haired youth. "You," she said accusingly, then took a drag out of the bottle, "are so infuriating sometimes."

Ranma was about to protest, when he was silenced by a glare by Setsuna that dared him to interrupt her. He didn't out of fear, she could be really scary at times after all.

"I was not planning that you reveal who you are to the Inners until after the artifacts have been found, but noooo, your chaotic matrix had to reveal your identity to the Inners already!" she finished with a frustrated slam of the bottle on to the counter.

"I was so enjoying my tanning in Barbados and when I just did a remote check on the Gate today, I got a fat warning that something big had happened! Thanks, now I have to find a way to prevent even more damage!" the last part came out more like a three year old throwing a tantrum.

The two looked at each other and an unsaid joke was said in between them, and they bit their lips trying not to snicker at Setsuna's pout, but a few short snorts came out anyways. Setsuna either did not hear it, or she just did not care.

"Can't you just talk to them?" Haruka dared to ask.

Setsuna snorted. "Ha! They only know me as a mysterious voice from something that looks like a ball with a cat face painted on it! I won't reveal that I exist until the right moment." She then took a breath before she'd rant on.

"See, the Inners are naive. They want world peace. They also think they can solve everything in the world with love and justice. They may be idealistic, but it does not mean their belief system is wrong. As Winston Churchill said 'Show me a young conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.' They are young, so let them be."

"I've watched them fight; they don't know how to fight, nor have they put any effort into learning how to fight. They are not doing themselves any favors, nor are they doing those who they are trying to protect any favours by constantly utilizing the same tactics of unload-firepower-in-the-hope-it-hits tactics," Ranma countered with a hint of disdain in his voice, Haruka just silently nodded in agreement with what her boyfriend was saying.

"While you got a point, not everybody is like you two, who had gone through so much at such a young age. You can't expect to hold everybody to the same standard you hold yourselves to," Setsuna said, acknowledging Ranma's perspective.

Haruka chimed in right then. "People's lives are at stake here. Do they not realize that they may be putting more people's lives in danger when they are shooting magical blasts everywhere?"

Letting out a sigh, as Setsuna was not expecting to win this argument, she decided to change tactics. She had hoped that the rift between the Inners and Outers would not come to pass, but it seemed that it was already too late to prevent it or to mend it. The damage had already been done.

"Fine, I am not asking you to like them, but at least try to be civil with them," Setsuna said feeling defeated and finishing up the last of her scotch. "If you feel you're more mature than them, act that way towards them."

Ranma and Haruka didn't answer. Setsuna was asking a lot from them. To be the better person and not lash out at the Inners in anger, that was more difficult than it sounded.

A smirk broke out on Setsuna's face, wanting to extract some form of revenge for losing. The mischievious smirk had an almost vicious undertone to it as she had seen how Haruka and Ranma had come through the door. They got it bad. This smirk disturbed the two entirely.

"Oh I had put some extra large condoms in your bedstands, try not to use them all" the green-haired Senshi said as she took a final turn while going upstairs.

What Setsuna said was completely lost to Ranma, but Haruka's face was burning red.

'Was I that obvious?' she thought.

-CM-

Ranma had definitely learned from his previous experience. He was a lot less clumsy than before, much to Haruka's joy. It was pleasurable, the rough texture rubbing inside her felt so different than the tender smaller fingers of a girl. It's not the tenderness that comes with the smoothness of skin. The starting tone for it felt so different as well. For once, Haruka relinquished control to Ranma, trusting him completely.

However, Haruka was not idle while Ranma did all of the work. She was squirming under Ranma's rough but tender kisses. She did not expect herself to feel so aroused from that bite earlier, but she was thankful that Ranma was holding her, because her legs did not hold.

They were both naked he was laying on top of her, and she was rubbing herself on him incessantly while her hand hand squeezed between them and had a firm grip on him. Both of them were not ready for the final act, but at the same time they both wanted release. She was rubbing herself on him, and he was using his long fingers on her. It was not long as both of them reached where they wanted to go, with a double silent cry.

Not minding the sticky mess they caused, they held onto each other tightly as both of them fell into a dreamless sleep.

END.

Beta-read and co-written by Tribun


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